SINGAPORE – FOX Sports drew a record audience of 14 million viewers in Asia for its coverage of the 2018 Australian Open of Grand Slam Tennis in Asia, a year-on-year increase of 20%, with a 78% increase of average ratings among viewers aged 15-49. This contributed to FOX Sports being the number one regional sports channel, during the tournament period across Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand and South Korea.
FOX Sports, the Home of Grand Slam Tennis in Asia, once again drew record audiences for its coverage of the 2018 Australian Open. The average ratings for live matches increased by 78% among viewers aged 15-49, and the tournament attracted 14 million viewers in Asia on the FOX Sports channels – a year-on-year increase of 20%.
The Men’s Singles final between Roger Federer and Marin Čilić rated as the number one broadcast programme amongst all regional sports channels in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines and Thailand that day. Fans in Asia also witnessed the emergence of Chung Hyeon, who became Korea’s first Grand Slam semi-finalist, which contributed to a tripling of the AO viewership on JTBC3-FOX Sports in South Korea, compared with the 2017 tournament.
In the Philippines, the live broadcasts of the tournament took FOX Sports to its best AO showing in five years, with a 46% year-on-year growth in viewership among viewers aged 16-49. In Singapore, the 1.03- rated Federer-Čilić final surpassed 2017’s epic Federer-Nadal final by 56% among core viewers aged 15- 49 years old, contributing to FOX Sports being the top-rated regional sports channel in Singapore in the week of the final.
In addition, fans in Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan were also able to catch live streams of every match via FOX+, the video-streaming service, through 16 simultaneous court feeds and more than 840 live matches on the app. Matches on-demand from the Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and Hisense Arena, as well as a condensed version of other matches, were also available.
Chung Hyeon‘s impressive performance and heartwarming story of passion and determination, as well as Federer’s run to his 20th Grand Slam tennis title, engaged viewers across Asia, which contributed to a 126% year-on-year increase in video consumption on foxsportsasia.com and FOX Sports’ social media during the tournament period. In all, www.foxsportsasia.com had over 1.5 million page views and over 400,000 unique visitors accessing Australian Open content over the 14-day tournament period, with 25 million impressions from social media platforms.
FOX Sports’ coverage of tennis continues with Roland Garros in May.
