Nielsen data shows daily audience numbers to news sites jumped 27% during Olympics, with figures still up post-games

Industry buoyed by latest daily Digital Content Ratings as online news proves its worth to advertisers in wake of Meta's funding withdrawal

Sydney, August 28, 2024 - Thanks to The Olympics, average daily audiences to Australia's leading news websites jumped by an average of 27% during the games, according to Nielsen Daily Digital Content Ratings (DCR) numbers.*

While several news publishers saw double-digit increases in their unique daily audience numbers, many digital news properties saw increases in the triple digits, such as The Guardian Sport, which grew its daily audience by 139% during the Olympics.

Nielsen Pacific MD, Monique Perry said: Australia's leading news site reached over 2 million people per day on 11 separate days during the Olympics. If that's not proof that news consumption remains robust, especially during major events, I don't know what is. These daily numbers show that the credibility and reach of news outlets make them an attractive proposition for advertisers seeking to build brand awareness and trust at scale.

Jonathan Betts, Nielsen Pacific, Executive Director, Commercial Growth and Product Strategy, added: As news consumption increasingly shifts online, advertisers must navigate a complex digital ecosystem, made more difficult by Meta's recent withdrawal of funding for news content on its platforms. These numbers show that despite this, news presents huge opportunities for both publishers and advertisers if they have a deep understanding of audience behaviour, especially at a daily level.

To manage and pivot digital campaigns successfully requires a greater level of sophistication. That means daily digital audience and content data, especially as programmatic advertising becomes the norm. Nielsen Digital Content Ratings is the only solution in market that can do this.

By leveraging the inherent strengths of news as a medium credibility, reach, and engagement advertisers can not only achieve their marketing objectives but also contribute to the long-term sustainability of the news industry.

Post-games, the homecoming of Australia's most successful Olympic team of all time, in addition to the protracted Raygun controversy, saw the boost to online news audiences extend past the closing ceremony. While daily audiences to news sites did drop in the week following the games, overall, numbers were still up by an average of 6% on pre-games levels.

The headline numbers were an average of daily unique audience to the 25 leading news websites in Australia in the two weeks leading up to the games, the duration of the games, and the week following the games.

*Source: Nielsen DCR, July 1 August 18, 2024

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Media Contact Dan Chapman

Assoc. Director, Communications, Nielsen APAC

dan.chapman@nielsen.com

+61 404 088 462

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