Australia’s on-line sports activities viewers is bigger, older, and extra concentrated round stay occasions than many media consumers assume. New knowledge printed by IAB Australia on March 26, 2026 maps a full yr of sports activities content material consumption throughout web sites, apps, and broadcast video on demand platforms, revealing patterns which have direct implications for marketing campaign planning and viewers focusing on within the Australian market.
In line with the IAB Australia report, 13.5 million Australians aged 14 and over visited a web-based sports activities web site or app on common every month over the 12 months from March 2025 to February 2026. The info comes from the Ipsos iris On-line Viewers Measurement Service and covers exercise throughout PC, laptop computer, smartphone, and pill units. That determine – 13.5 million month-to-month guests – represents a considerable share of the Australian inhabitants, and it isn’t evenly distributed throughout the yr.
Occasion-driven spikes outline the calendar
The viewers knowledge exhibits a sample that mirrors the stay sports activities calendar intently. In line with the report, the net sports activities viewers peaked in March 2025 with the simultaneous begin of the AFL and NRL seasons. From that time, AFL drove increased viewers numbers by the primary half of the yr, peaking once more in September with the finals sequence. NRL adopted an identical arc, with elevated audiences in Might and June earlier than additionally peaking in September. Cricket drew its personal viewers window from November by January. The Australian Open tennis event added a January spike, whereas the Winter Olympics in February 2026 contributed to the ultimate month of the measurement interval.
What the information doesn’t present is a year-round flooring of sustained engagement. The drop-off between seasons is actual. Common minutes per particular person – a measure of how a lot time every customer spends with sports activities content material – adopted a distinct trajectory from uncooked viewers dimension, illustrating that the individuals who do go to sports activities properties outdoors peak occasion home windows spend significantly much less time there.
This sample has sensible penalties for programmatic consumers. Stock volumes, viewers demographics, and engagement charges on sports activities properties shift materially relying on which occasions are stay. A marketing campaign deliberate round common month-to-month viewers figures will encounter very totally different precise situations relying on the week it runs.
AFL: 3.7 million month-to-month, dominated by older males
The Australian Soccer League model group – which incorporates afl.com, the official app, tipping and fantasy platforms, and crew web sites – attracted on common greater than 3.7 million Australians per thirty days through the season from March 2025 to October 2025, based on the report. Of these, 1.9 million used the stay official app on common throughout season months. Month-to-month viewers peaked in September through the finals sequence, when the mixed model group reached near its highest recorded stage throughout the measurement window.
The gender and age composition of time spent on AFL digital properties in February 2026 tells a particular story. In line with the report, males accounted for 81% of time spent, females 19%. The age breakdown is much more placing: adults aged 65 and over represented 32% of complete time spent, whereas the 40-54 bracket added an extra 31%. The 55-64 group contributed 20%. Collectively, these three older cohorts accounted for greater than 80% of all time spent on AFL digital properties. Australians aged 14-24 represented simply 3% of time spent, and people aged 25-39 added 14%.
For advertisers, this demographic composition issues in a really direct approach. AFL digital stock reaches a big viewers of older Australian males with excessive engagement through the season. That viewers just isn’t well-described by generic sports activities viewers assumptions. It’s older than the tv sports activities viewers in lots of different markets, and extra concentrated within the 40-plus demographic than consumers accustomed to younger-skewing sports activities audiences may anticipate. IAB Australia’s video measurement framework, printed in December 2025, examined how advertisers can higher consider efficiency throughout totally different video environments, together with sport-adjacent stock.
NRL: 2.5 million month-to-month, closely male, 40-64 dominant
The Nationwide Rugby League model group – masking nrl.com, the official app, tipping platforms, and crew web sites – averaged greater than 2.5 million month-to-month guests throughout season months. Of these, over 700,000 on common used the stay official app. Like AFL, the NRL viewers peaked in September with the finals sequence, reaching roughly 2.8 million in that month based on the chart knowledge within the report.
The demographic profile for NRL digital engagement in February 2026 is much more concentrated amongst older adults. In line with the report, males made up 83% of complete time spent, with females at 17%. When it comes to age, adults aged 55-64 accounted for 51% of complete time spent – a placing majority from a single age bracket. These aged 40-54 added 21%, and people 65 and over contributed 18%. Mixed, the 40-plus cohort accounted for over 70% of all time spent on NRL digital properties. Australians aged 14-24 represented simply 2% of complete time, and people aged 25-39 contributed 8%.
The NRL viewers’s demographic focus within the 55-64 bracket is a particular discovering that warrants consideration. Greater than half of all time spent on NRL digital properties got here from a single decade of the age spectrum. This isn’t a broadly distributed sports activities viewers. It’s a particular phase – older Australian males – and media plans that deal with the NRL digital viewers as interchangeable with different sports activities properties will possible misinterpret precise attain and engagement outcomes.
BVOD: 7.6 million viewers in January, up 65% on December
Broadcast video on demand consumption of sports activities occasions and applications follows a distinct sample from web site and app site visitors, and the January 2026 determine stands out markedly. In line with the report, 4.9 million Australians aged 14 and over seen BVOD on-line sports activities occasions and applications on common over the 12 months from February 2025 to January 2026. However the month-to-month figures reveal substantial variation round that common.
In January 2026, over 7.6 million Australians watched BVOD sports activities applications, a rise of 65% from December 2025. Complete time spent on BVOD sports activities viewing lifted 139% between these two months. The motive force, based on the report, was the Australian Open tennis event. The BVOD platforms tracked embody ABC iView, 9Now, SBS on Demand, 7Plus, and 10 Play, measured throughout CTV, pc, smartphone, and pill units. The CTV Revealed Database methodology is utilized to this measurement.
The prior annual peak got here in September 2025 throughout AFL and NRL finals sequence, the place BVOD sports activities video viewers additionally reached elevated ranges, although the January 2026 Australian Open determine exceeded it. This creates two identifiable peaks in BVOD sports activities consumption yearly – the September finals window and the January Australian Open interval – with a pointy dip within the months between.
Australian digital advertising hit a record $17.2 billion in FY25, with BVOD promoting rising 18.3% to $500 million. The sports activities viewers knowledge printed in March 2026 gives the audience-side counterpart to these spending figures, displaying the place viewers truly go throughout main occasions.
9Now: feminine and youthful skew through the Australian Open
The 9Now platform knowledge inside the report provides a particular instance of how main occasions shift viewers composition on particular person BVOD platforms. The 9Now Sports activities Occasions and Packages class recorded 5,229,000 video viewers in January 2026, in comparison with 1,225,000 in December 2025 – a rise of greater than 300% month on month. Yr on yr, the January determine was up 30% from 4,036,000 in January 2025.
What modified was not simply the amount however the composition. In line with the report, 54% of 9Now’s sports activities video viewers in January 2026 have been feminine, in comparison with a male-dominated cut up typical of NRL and AFL digital properties. The age breakdown was additionally notably totally different: 54% of the video viewers have been aged between 25 and 54, with 25-39 year-olds representing 26% and 40-54 year-olds one other 28%. Adults aged 65 and over accounted for 20%, and people aged 14-24 contributed 10%.
This discovering illustrates how the Australian Open attracts a broader, extra gender-balanced, and considerably youthful viewers than the home soccer codes. For consumers contemplating BVOD sports activities stock, the occasion context issues as a lot because the platform. The identical writer, the identical surroundings, and the identical advert codecs ship a materially totally different viewers relying on whether or not the content material is AFL finals or Australian Open tennis.
Ipsos iris’s integration of YouTube CTV data in 2024 expanded the cross-screen measurement infrastructure underpinning these figures. The hybrid methodology combining panel knowledge with site-centric census measurement provides Ipsos iris a extra full view of how Australians eat sports activities content material throughout units than single-source approaches can present.
Methodology: Ipsos iris hybrid panel and census method
The info within the report comes from Ipsos iris, which IAB Australia describes because the endorsed digital content material measurement system for the planning, shopping for, and reporting of digital audiences in Australia. In line with the supply web page, Ipsos iris makes use of a hybrid methodology that mixes metered knowledge from a nationally consultant, single-source passive panel with site-centric census measurement. Ipsos conducts an institution survey of 12,000 Australians aged 14 and over each year to seize machine possession and utilization on the family and private stage.
The measurement covers Smartphone, PC, Laptop computer, Pill, and CTV units. The viewers figures within the sports activities report are based mostly on Australians aged 14 and over except in any other case said. The sports activities class knowledge covers the interval February 2025 to February 2026. The BVOD knowledge covers January 2025 to January 2026, a barely totally different window. Model group knowledge for AFL and NRL covers the total season interval from March 2025 to October 2025 for time composition figures, although month-to-month viewers figures prolong by February 2026.
The sports activities viewers knowledge launched by IAB Australia in March 2026 just isn’t primarily a analysis doc about sport. It’s an viewers planning useful resource. The figures describe who’s reachable, when, by which properties, and in what focus.
A number of factors emerge with sensible drive. First, the Australian on-line sports activities viewers is older than assumptions based mostly on basic sports activities viewers demographics may recommend. Each AFL and NRL digital properties present time-spent dominated by adults over 40, with the 55-64 bracket alone accounting for almost all of NRL digital engagement. Second, occasion timing drives sharp swings in viewers dimension. The Australian Open produced a 65% uplift in BVOD sports activities viewers in a single month. Planning that ignores occasion calendars will miss these home windows or encounter sudden stock dynamics. Third, platform-level demographics shift with content material. The identical broadcaster’s BVOD platform confirmed a feminine majority throughout Australian Open protection however would look fully totally different throughout NRL season content material.
Nielsen’s Connected TV intelligence launch for the Australian market in August 2025 highlighted how advertisers have been searching for higher cross-platform aggressive knowledge as CTV sports activities stock expanded. The Ipsos iris sports activities knowledge enhances that intelligence layer with viewer-level viewers composition element.
The February 2026 knowledge additionally captures the Winter Olympics as a minor issue within the sports activities class viewers figures for that month. The IAB Australia publication notes that the net sports activities viewers elevated by 4.9% from January to February 2026, with the Winter Olympics among the many contributing occasions alongside the Australian Open males’s tennis last, the Tremendous Bowl, and the AFL State of Origin sequence in Perth.
IAB Australia’s Q3 2024 digital ad spend figures confirmed that the Paris Olympics considerably influenced video promoting stock within the September quarter of that yr. The Winter Olympics in February 2026 represents a smaller however comparable event-driven viewers dynamic, this time seen within the sports activities web site and app class moderately than video spend alone.
Timeline
- February 2025 – February 2026: Ipsos iris measurement interval for the net sports activities class viewers knowledge, masking 13.5 million common month-to-month guests aged 14+
- March 2025: AFL and NRL seasons start; on-line sports activities viewers peaks for the primary time within the measurement interval
- March 2025 – October 2025: AFL and NRL season window used for model group time composition knowledge
- Might and June 2025: NRL information elevated on-line audiences through the common season
- August 2025: IAB Australia launches programmatic DOOH buyers guide, with sports activities scores famous as a dynamic inventive set off
- August 28, 2025: IAB Australia publishes FY25 digital advertising revenue report, recording $17.2 billion in complete spend and BVOD rising 18.3% to $500 million
- September 2025: AFL and NRL finals sequence; each model teams attain month-to-month viewers peaks; BVOD sports activities viewing additionally peaks for the home soccer season
- November 2025 – January 2026: Cricket season drives elevated on-line sports activities viewers within the class
- December 2025: IAB Australia publishes video measurement framework masking sports activities and different video environments
- December 2025: IAB Australia releases audience segmentation blueprint for retail media
- January 2026: Australian Open drives 65% uplift in BVOD sports activities viewers to 7.6 million; 9Now information 5.229 million sports activities video viewers, up 30% yr on yr and over 300% month on month; feminine viewers account for 54% of 9Now sports activities viewers throughout this era
- February 2026: Winter Olympics, Australian Open males’s last, Tremendous Bowl, and AFL State of Origin in Perth drive an extra 4.9% enhance in on-line sports activities viewers month on month
- March 26, 2026: IAB Australia publishes the February 2026 Sports activities Nickable Charts based mostly on Ipsos iris knowledge
Abstract
Who: IAB Australia and Ipsos, utilizing the Ipsos iris On-line Viewers Measurement Service – the endorsed digital viewers measurement foreign money for Australia’s promoting business
What: A dataset masking on-line sports activities viewers dimension, time spent, BVOD viewing, and demographic composition throughout the Australian Soccer League, Nationwide Rugby League, and broadcast video on demand platforms over a 12-month interval to February 2026, printed as a set of freely downloadable business charts
When: The info covers the interval February 2025 to February 2026, with the IAB Australia publication launched on March 26, 2026
The place: Australia; measurements cowl web sites and apps accessed by way of PC, laptop computer, smartphone, pill, and CTV units by Australians aged 14 and over
Why: The info is printed to help media planners, consumers, advertisers, and publishers in understanding the dimensions, form, and demographic composition of the Australian on-line sports activities viewers, enabling extra correct marketing campaign planning, viewers focusing on, and funding choices throughout sports-adjacent digital and BVOD stock
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