WBD sees record digital audience for Australian Open
January 23, 2024
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) Sports Europe has announced record breaking digital audiences for its coverage of the Australian Open following week one of the tournament – and has seen its biggest ever digital audience at the halfway stage.
On discovery+, which provides exclusive streaming coverage of the tournament in ten markets in Europe, audiences grew by 13 per cent overall after eight days of competition (compared to 2023) with minutes watched rising by 17 per cent.
Double-digit audience growth has been witnessed in multiple markets, underpinned by the strong performances of local talent including in Finland (+45 per cent), Denmark (+26 per cent) and Germany (+24 per cent). The trend in increasing live match consumption has been mirrored for markets where the Eurosport App provides streaming access of every moment including in Hungary (+25 per cent) and France (+13 per cent).
Tennis fans have also been attracted to the Eurosport website to consume even more tennis content, news and videos than ever before. Eurosport’s strategy to extend the storytelling beyond the premium live on-court action has seen it secure double-digit growth (+17 per cent) in unique users on its free Eurosport.com sites across all markets as well as increasing free video minutes watched by almost a half (+49 per cent).
Local rises in digital audiences visiting the Eurosport wesbite include Norway (+52 per cent); Romania (+33 per cent); Italy (+32 per cent); France (+17 per cent) and the Netherlands (+15 per cent).
This is complemented by growing social media engagement for free highlights clips and additional expert-led content that have contributed to more than doubling video views on Eurosport’s Tennis YouTube during week one, and more than doubling video views and engagement on Instagram compared to last year.
Exclusive coverage of every match at the Australian Open continues this week on discovery+ and Eurosport.