The Hyundai A-League has set new single-round records for attendance, TV ratings and digital audiences in the opening week 2012/13 Season.
The Hyundai A-League has set new single-round records for attendance, TV ratings and digital audiences in the opening week 2012/13 Season.
In Round 1, 93,500 fans turned out to the five matches, beating the previous single-round aggregate record set in Round 3 last season of 87,508.
TV audiences have also surged with an average audience of 108,000 per game making it the highest-rating single round TV audience all-time. This marks an increase of over 35% on audiences from last season and up 38% on the corresponding round from the 2011/12 season.
Visits to the FFA digital network of club and Hyundai A-League websites was up 25% on last season-s first round record, seeing 107,000 unique browsers on Hyundai A-League content over the period Friday night to Sunday afternoon.
The impressive audience growth is expected to continue in international markets. This season the Hyundai A-League will be seen in territories across the globe with live matches taken throughout Asia including Hong Kong, Singapore, Myanmar, in Italy via Mediaset and the USA with both One World Sport and Fox Soccer Channel while weekly highlights will be broadcast in the UK through Sky Sports.
The all matches are also broadcast on global broadband by Perform. Ratings figures are not available at this time.
The weekend-s audience figures show that the 2012/13 Hyundai A-League is living up to its billing as the most anticipated season in the A-League-s history, said FFA CEO Ben Buckley.
“The huge audience growth in attendances, TV and digital is an early dividend for the hard-work by our 10 clubs and the A-League management,” said Buckley.
“The excitement generated by new marquee players and new coaches has been converted into fans on the terraces and viewers on screens. What they saw was high-quality football, superb sports entertainment and a fabulous football atmosphere.
“The fans have been exceptional, the feeling at the games has been electric and I look forward with eager anticipation to Round 2 and more crowd records to be broken when Sydney FC take on Newcastle Jets at Allianz Stadium.”
With an average attendance across the five matches of 18,700 the five matches now hold the highest average attendance since the competition grew to 10 Clubs.
HIGHEST A-LEAGUE ROUND AGGREGATES:
93,500 Round 1, 2012/13 season (5 matches)
87,508 Round 3, 2011/12 season (5 matches)
84,685 Round 20, 2007/08 season (4 matches)
80,212 Round 16, 2006/07 season (4 matches)
79,850 Round 1, 2011/12 season (5 matches)
73,751 Round 24, 2010/11 season (5 matches)
