Photo by Connor Coyne on Unsplash.
The FIFA World Cup, NBA finals, AFL fixtures and Wimbledon tennis championship sent Australians online in large numbers for sporting updates in June, according to Ipsos iris data, Australia's digital audience measurement currency endorsed by IAB Australia.
The sports category's audience jumped 8.1% month-on-month, reaching 14.1 million Australians in June, who spent an average of 56.6 minutes across the month consuming sport-related content on sports websites and apps.
The FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Mexico City on 11 June, drove the largest increase in online sports consumption, with Australians tracking scores, fixtures and live updates throughout the tournament.
As the tournament's official Australian broadcast partner, SBS Brand Group, which covers SBS websites and apps across PCs, laptops and mobile devices, saw its audience grow 28.7% month-on-month, from 5.6 million to 7.2 million.
Its SBS Sport audience jumped from 59,000 to 716,000, an increase of more than 11 times.
FIFA's Australian online audience grew from 112,000 in May to more than 1.6 million in June, up 13 times, with average time spent on the site also increasing 65% month-on-month.
The NBA finals, which began on 3 June, grew ESPN.com.au audiences by 33% month-on-month from 2.3 million to 3.1 million, as Australians watched the New York Knicks.
The Australian Football League websites and apps reached 3.75 million Australians, with viewers spending around 36 minutes per person across the month.
Sports category consumption was strong across both genders, with audience reach increasing 7% month-on-month for men, from 63% to 70%, and 4% for women, from 52% to 56%.
21.6 million people used a news website or app in June, reaching 95.7% of online Australians aged 14 and over, with users spending around 3.12 hours over the month reading news online.
The career category recorded its highest audience growth year-on-year for the fourth consecutive month, up 10.7%.
This was followed by year-on-year increases in travel (5.4%), energy suppliers and utilities (4.6%), homes and property (3.6%) and health (3.6%).
In June, 22.5 million Australians aged 14 and over used the internet, on par with May, and spent an average of 4.97 hours daily online.
The most consumed categories were social networking (22.49 million), search engines (22.48 million), online media (22.46 million), technology (22.4 million) and entertainment (22.19 million).
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