Cricket Australia has confirmed a spike in viewership in the television ratings of the first Test match between Australia and India held at the Adelaide Oval from 17th to 19th December. According to the cricket board, the first Vodafone Test match witnessed an average audience of 1.11 Million viewers across Foxtel and Seven Network. This spike estimate is 5 percent higher than the last Test series against India in 2018-19.
The Australian board announced the news update about the viewership spike on its Twitter Handle on December 24. In the same tweet, Cricket Australia also stated there was a 49,281 live audience present at Adelaide during the three days of the match. Whereas, Cricket Australia allowed 27,000 per day as crowd capacity for the first Test.
The news of the increase in the viewership ratings should be a Christmas present for Channel Seven who are literally at war with the Australian Cricket Board. Last month, the broadcasting company filed paperwork against the cricketing body in the federal court and accused the India series governed by BCCI rather than Cricket Australia.
Meanwhile, the viewership ratings for the first Test in India is yet to be released. In the Indian subcontinent, the Australia series is getting broadcasted on Sony Pictures Sports Network India. Sony India is broadcasting the series in four languages on three different channels with the live streaming on SonyLIV. It is going to be interesting to see the response of the Indian audiences.
After India’s daunting loss in the first Test match against the mighty Australians, both the teams are kicked in for the next clash to be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The second Test of the series is Australia’s long-living tradition of Boxing-Day test which will be commenced from December 26.