Australian cricket continued to build on the success of last year’s home ICC Cricket World Cup, with record attendance, viewing and online audiences highlighting the game’s position as the country’s number one summer pastime.
1,727,270 Australians attended international cricket, the KFC Big Bash League, and the Rebel Women’s Big Bash League during 2015-16, making it the country’s most attended cricket season on record.
A total of 696,775 people attended international men’s cricket this season, with Australia taking on New Zealand and the West Indies in the Commonwealth Bank Test Series followed by the exciting limited overs contest against India, comprising of the Victoria Bitter One-Day International Series then three KFC T20 Internationals.
The world champion Australian women’s team, the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars, also faced India in three T20 Internationals and three One-Day Internationals during the 2015-16 season.
An average of 1.3 million people tuned in to watch Test, ODI and T20INTL matches broadcast on the Nine Network, and many more followed the action via cricket.com.au and the Cricket Australia Live App, with the highlight being the inaugural Day/Night Test at the Adelaide Oval in November.
The positive response by fans to that match was reflected by record crowds and television ratings, with the national TV audience for the third day peaking at 3.19 million viewers, making it the highest rating day in Nine’s 2015-16 Summer of Cricket. The average of 2.34 million viewers that took in the final session of the match made for the most watched non-Ashes Test session since ratings records began.
Test cricket in Australia consistently rated in the Top 10 television programs nationally throughout the summer, demonstrating the continued appeal of the game’s traditional format.
Complementing the strong results seen for international cricket, the KFC Big Bash League rose to unprecedented levels of popularity in its fifth year, with an average audience of more than 1 million Australians tuning in to watch the tournament on Network TEN and a record breaking 1,030,495 people attending matches.
Fans across the country flocked to the BBL, with seven out of eight venues setting all-time domestic cricket attendance records, including an incredible 80,883 fans descending on the MCG for the Melbourne Stars vs. Melbourne Renegades clash on 2 January.
The Rebel Women’s Big Bash League also achieved impressive results in just its first season, with more than 70,000 attendees across the ten broadcast matches in the tournament and an average television audience of 231,000 people watching matches on TEN and ONE. The TV audience peaked to 398,642 viewers during the 2 January Melbourne derby.
The 2015-16 season also saw the popularity of Cricket Australia’s digital platforms continue to grow. The Cricket Australia network, including cricket.com.au, achieved a unique audience of more than one million (as measured by Nielsen) in December to be the second most visited sports news site during the month and to cement its position as the second most popular sporting body website for the year. There was also a surge in video consumption, with nearly 100 million minutes streamed in total across all formats this season, up 20 per cent on last year.
The Cricket Australia Live Pass, which offers fans streaming content throughout the summer, saw fans consume more than 46 million minutes of content, up 200 per cent on last season, and a 140 per cent increase in the number of subscribers to the service*. The Cricket Australia Live app also continued its strong growth, with 1.7 million active users averaging nearly 8 minutes per session over the past year.
The 2015-16 season also saw Optus come on board as Cricket Australia’s official Mobile Multimedia Partner. The unique content created by Cricket Australia for Optus reached more than 33 million people across all cricket’s digital channels.
Cricket Australia social media accounts continue to draw people to the game, led by the cricket.com.au Facebook page, which had an average weekly reach of 8.6 million people over the course of the summer. More than 33 million videos were watched via the Facebook page during the season, a 16 per cent increase on last year. Twitter also continues to be a strong channel for fan engagement for cricket, with Cricket.com.au tweets registering 87 million impressions. Cricket Australia also saw strong engagement on its new Snapchat channel.
Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said the response from the public to the 2015-16 season, including the highly successful KFC Big Bash League and the impressive growth of women’s cricket this year, demonstrates that cricket is in good health.
“2015-16 has been an outstanding season for cricket in Australia and the numbers of people who have followed the game, either by attending a match or following it on TV or online, strongly suggests that cricket is our country’s number one summer pastime.
“As we grow cricket as Australia’s favourite sport, we are working harder than ever to put fans first. This season we have introduced a number of initiatives to enhance the cricket fan experience, the first day-night Test being one prime example, and the response from the public has been overwhelmingly positive.”
2015-16 Season Fast Facts
| ATTENDANCE | |
| Total Cricket Attendance | 1,727,270 |
| Highest Match Attendance (Test) | 123,736 (Commonwealth Bank Adelaide Test, Adelaide Oval, 27-29 November 2015) |
| Highest Match Attendance (ODI) | 47,638 (Victoria Bitter One Day International, MCG, 17 January 2016) |
| Highest Match Attendance (T20INTL) | 58,787 (KFC T20INTL, MCG, 29 January 2016) |
| Highest Match Attendance (BBL) | 80,883 (Melbourne Stars vs Melbourne Renegades, MCG, 2 January 2016) |
| Highest Match Attendance (WBBL) | 14,611 (Melbourne Renegades vs Sydney Thunder, Etihad Stadium, 9 January 2016) |
| TV RATINGS | |
| Average Ratings (Test) | 1,062,620 |
| Average Ratings (ODI) | 1,346,025 |
| Average Ratings (T20INTL) | 1,583,561 |
| Average Ratings (WT20INTL) | 265,127 |
| Average Ratings (BBL) | 1,128,284 |
| Average Ratings (WBBL) | 231,009 |
| Highest Rating Session of Cricket | 2.34 million (Session Three, Commonwealth Bank Adelaide Test, Adelaide Oval, 29 November) |