News.com.au reclaimed the top news brands ranking from ABC NEWS on the News brands’ ranking during July 2024, according to Ipsos iris data.
In June, the data reported that ABC NEWS had almost 12.6 million unique visitors in June compared to news.com.au, which had 12.4 million unique visitors.
The News Corp title took back pole position in the news brands rankings with 12.9 million unique visitors, followed by the broadcaster’s newly refreshed online news offering with 12.7 million and nine.com.au with 10.7 million.
The Paris Olympics dominated the news and sports cycle throughout July as Australians sought out all the results from the games. According to the data, more than 20.8 million people used a news website or app in July, reaching 97% of online Australians aged 14+.
Extensive coverage of the start of the 2024 Games in late July across multiple outlets was highlighted by a slew of key moments, including performances from Lady Gaga and Celine Dion at the Opening Ceremony and fan-favourite sports, particularly swimming and football, which experienced a surge in people visiting news websites and apps for up-to-the-minute updates.
Online usage time peaked nationwide in July, with Australians spending more time online last month than any month to-date in 2024, the data revealed.
Ipsos iris found that many online categories also notched up record audience numbers for 2024 in July, including sports, games, events and attractions, the business and finance sectors, energy suppliers and social networking.
While the Olympics was the mainstay across major headlines, local and international events also captured Australians’ attention on news websites and apps including the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally, Joe Biden dropping out of the US presidential race, the worldwide CrowdStrike tech outage that affected many businesses globally, and the French and UK election results.
Locally, Australians flocked to digital news websites and apps for the final game of the 2024 State of Origin series, the CFMEU corruption scandal and the series finale of Masterchef Australia.
The chart below shows the News brands’ ranking during July 2024 by online audience size.
Ipsos iris, digital audience measurement currency endorsed by IAB Australia, showed that overall, 21.4 million Australians aged 14+ used the internet in July, spending an average of 4.6 hours online per day, or almost 142 hours for the month – the most time notched up so far in 2024.
Search engines was the most consumed category in July at 21.4 million, followed by social networking and technology (21.3 million respectively), retail and commerce (21.1 million) and entertainment (21 million).
The Paris Olympics, along with the deciding clash of the State of Origin and the annual Wimbledon tennis contest, significantly boosted online sports content consumption, with the sports category up 7% (a whopping 962,000 audience) on June figures.
The chart below shows the Sports brands’ ranking during July 2024 by online audience size.
The business and finance sectors recorded their biggest audience numbers for the year so far in July. It reached 20.4 million and 20.7 million respectively for the month, driven by end-of-financial-year activities, with many Australians using tax time to seek out business and finance advice.
Changes to electricity prices, introduced nationwide on July 1, contributed to the largest audience this year for the energy suppliers category (a record 9.7 million audience in July) with time spent increasing 18% year on year
The technology category also saw a 16% increase in average time spent per person in July, up on average 40 minutes on the previous month. The average person spent 294 minutes browsing the category.
The timing of the spike coincides with the CrowdStrike outage, with people spending longer on these sites and apps searching for updates and information on possible effects to their business and any solutions to the issue.