Broad Radio is a new radio station that started broadcasting loud, clear and fiercely this morning.

Spearheading the new broadcast offering is former Fox FM breakfast star Jo Stanley. Stanley was #1 in Melbourne FM breakfast radio for six years alongside Matt Tilley on The Matt & Jo Show on Fox FM. She then later teamed with Anthony ‘Lehmo’ Lehmann with The Jo & Lehmo Show on Gold 104.3.

The arrival of Stanley back open the airwaves is another challenge for Kyle and Jackie O who are jostling with all the other talented breakfast teams to secure a Melbourne audience.

But Broad Radio has even bigger ambitions. It’s not for a Melbourne audience. As Stanley tells Mediaweek below, the format will appeal to women in regional and country areas, right across Australia.

Broad Radio released its app online across the weekend. Music director Tracee Hutchison was hosting music on Sunday afternoon.

At 7am this morning, Stanley joined Hutchison on air for a pop-up breakfast show.

Meet the Morning Broads

The full station launch will take place from Monday October 7, with Broad Radio’s breakfast show – Morning Broads – with Stanley co-hosting with Marieke Hardy and Michala Banas.

Morning Broads: Michala Banas, Jo Stanley and Marieke Hardy

The full line-up of Broad Radio hosts will also be revealed on that day.

What we can reveal at this stage is the extended team will be made up of experienced presenters, broadcasters, sports commentators and journalists. The programming will include a Friday drive show and a weekly show that celebrates and shares First Nations women’s stories, their knowledge, their life lessons and music.

Along with breakfast shows and music stream, Broad Radio is also now offering a curated podcast network of various programs via its app.

To find out more, Mediaweek spoke with Jon Stanley.

Q&A with Broad Radio founder Jo Stanley

Jo Stanley has been working on the Broad Radio project for close to four years. (It started as a one-hour live weekly stream back in 2020.) She’s not drawn a wage in that time. Her husband Darren McFarlane came on fulltime about six months ago.

You’ve thought about this for a while, what pushed you over the edge?

The idea came to me when I was meditating. Every time I meditated, it was there. I got to a point where I thought, I feel like the universe is telling me something. I’m going to have to do this, or I’m going to be haunted by it for the rest of my life. That was the instigator that tipped me into action.

I was looking for radio that I could listen to that reflected my life stage. I couldn’t find anything.

As a lover of radio and the medium, and as someone who has witnessed how transformative radio can be for an individual as well as a community, I just saw a need.

Jo Stanley

What’s the business model?

There’s a great business case for it, because women control 80% of the household spending. There’s a great gap in the market that I was like, okay, there’s an opportunity there as well. But for me, largely, it was about the opportunity to create a new space for women, and also diverse voices, elevate diverse voices that you just don’t hear very often in mainstream media.

We will be launching a membership offering. It will be $8 a month, or $80 a year, and we will be building a community.

Who are your listeners?

There is not one listener. Because we’re internet radio, and we’re streaming, we are not limited to capital cities.

We’re very aware that we have an audience in remote and regional Australia, country Australia, that is able to access us in a way they can’t access mainstream capital city radio.

There are women in everyday life going about their business, trying to understand how to juggle the challenges of life.

Our core audience is probably 35 to 55.

Women who might have teenagers who are still at home or young adults still at home. Let me tell you, kids grow up and they still need parenting. They’ve got their parents who are aging, their careers are probably at their most challenging in that late 40 age bracket. They are having to manage their own understanding of who they are, as they move through the transition into middle age.

It can be a messy but glorious transition time that women experience in different ways. They need a lot of entertainment, lightness and laughter and love and information and inspiration, and they need it all in one place.

How to listen to Broad Radio

We are currently broadcasting out of a podcast studio in Melbourne. Because our technology is all cloud-based, you can broadcast from anywhere.

The Broad Radio app is purpose built letting you take the content wherever you go. Bluetooth the music to your speaker or your headphones or your car.

But it’s simply radio as we know it and love it. All the content that makes up radio – sweepers, intros, ads, talk, and lots of music.

What was your biggest investment?

This is the case for pretty much every startup, it’s the talent. We’ve been really fortunate. The team we’ve built is incredible off-air and on.

Darren McFarlane and Jo Stanley

Do you have many investors?

My husband Darren and I are directors. We did an equity crowdsource funding raise in March this year through Birchel. [The crowdfunding raised close to $400,000.] We have 290 investors who are incredibly engaged and passionate.

Prior to that, we have had some angel investors and they have been with us from the beginning.

We had crowdfunding to help us build the app to begin with, but that wasn’t for equity.

Are men welcome to tune in?

Of course.

[Darren McFarlane tells his story as a listener]

One thing that I found as the male listener were really funny stories, really smart conversations. By no means did I feel excluded from any of those conversations as a listener.

I was just like, this is great. This is fun. This is smart.

Everyone will really connect.

[Back to Jo Stanley]

Some of my favourite broadcasting in my career has been on Triple M, a predominantly a male audience. Women, of course, also listen to Triple M.

At Broad Radio there is definitely a space for all people

Tracee Hutchison

Broads playing broad music: Tracee Hutchison on the music.

“When Jo (Stanley) and I started building the music blocks for Broad Radio we both had a shared vision of creating a soundtrack that spoke to our name. I’ve always believed that there is a sweet spot between commercial radio and community radio – a station that will champion emerging artists and First Nations artists and program their music alongside established artists who might have a shared sensibility or sound.

“Broad Radio is where you’ll hear artists you know and artists we’d love you to know more about. Curating our music programming has been an absolute labour of love, and I feel very passionate and deeply invested in knowing there will be artists who will find new audiences through Broad Radio. Artists like Kee’Ahn programmed alongside Beyonce, the mighty Amyl & the Sniffers alongside Lady Gaga, GFlip next to P!nk, Eliza Hull sidling up to Kate Bush and Angie McMahon alongside Patti Smith. Our music stretches back to the 1960s with artists like Aretha Franklin and Nancy Sinatra and finds a place for our own trailblazers like Helen Reddy, Olivia, Kylie, Chrissy Amphlett and Aunty Ruby Hunter, alongside brand-new artists and new releases. There is so much great music and so many great artists that don’t get the airplay they should because they don’t fit a dominant sound, or an algorithm. I’ve kind of become a human algorithm, but programming with intention and a whole lot of joy!”

See also: Gold’s Jo Stanley and Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann celebrate 300 shows

MFA EX Sydney saw media professionals from different levels descend upon the White Bay Cruise Terminal on Thursday for a day of people development and to drive the industry forward.

The conference celebrated what the industry has achieved and looked ahead to its future and the innovations set to create change.

This year’s content was curated by industry leaders, including Katie Rigg-Smith from WPP, Linda Wong from MFA, Chloe Hooper from Barefoot, and Dan Johns from Tumbleturn Marketing Advisory.

In her opening address, MFA CEO Sophie Madden said the conference is a day for “creating and inspiring change, and ultimately to deliver great effectiveness in everything we do, because we are the changers.”

“Each and every one of us has a role to play in that,” she added.

Sophie Madden

 
Madden noted that next month, MFA and fellow industry bodies will launch Ad Net Zero, a climate action plan for the media industry to support.

On the speaker line up of the day, Madden said she loved seeing the passion and commitment of the community to be changers together. “There’s no better example of that than so many of the sessions today which are true collaborations between agencies. I don’t think we’ve seen that at MFA EX before.”
 
She praised presenters from competing agencies for having the initiative to come together to do a session on stage and inspiring the industry to change for the better. 

Mind the Gap: Tips to Bridge the Media-Marketer Relationship

Cam Luby, head of consumer marketing at Optus, told attendees he believes there is a “chasm of knowledge and understanding that exists between marketers, media agencies and creative agencies.

“If you want to be the changers like you say that you are, closing the gap is what you need to do,” he said.

Cam Luby

Luby share tips to bridging the gap, including: 

• Keep it simple: Being understood is better than being smart
• You’re a connector: Look for opportunities
• Hold the jazz hands: Marketers will take risks if there’s a safety net
• Don’t focus on being right: Being interesting is better than being right

It’s Time to Break the Rules 

EssenceMediacom’s Sophie Price and Jack Graham encouraged took to the stage to share their five rules for breaking the rules in the industry.

• Know the rules to break the rules
• Breakthrough the category norms
• Use data to take calculated risks
• Build a bank of breakthrough case studies 
• Set up your management to prove success

Jack Graham and Sophie Price

Vision 2049: A Peek at our Industry’s Future

David Bielenberg, head of strategy, Melbourne and Gemma Dawkins, national head of digital at PHD arrived via time machine at the MFA EX stage to take attendees through the impact of AI on future work and decision-making in the industry.

Using a QR code, attendees voted on automating tasks, choosing optimisation over origination, predictive personalisation over-reactive, and user ethics over technology governance. 

The keynote stressed the idea of focusing automation efforts on optimising existing tasks to make them more efficient as well as taking a user-centric approach to AI regulation by prioritising privacy, transparency and mitigating bias.

Gemma Dawkins and David Bielenberg

Bielenberg said: “It’s up to this cohort in our industry to ensure that we are making the right sense and are navigating those challenges correctly on the question of AI,” he said.

“It’s about humans and machines working together, us doing what we do best and AI doing what it does best, not AI competing against us.”

The Price Isn’t Right

Hearts & Science’s Ashley Wong and Liz Wigmore donned sparkly jackets and channelled their inner Larry Emdur as the pair welcomed contestants up to play ‘The Price Isn’t Right.’

Contestants were quizzed on the carbon costs of various daily activities, including the costs of campaigns. The first contestant was asked to rank the carbon cost of various daily life activities, such as laundry and coffee consumption. The correct ranking was revealed, with the highest carbon cost being associated with 1000 impressions in a digital campaign.

Ashley Wong and Liz Wigmore host the Price Isn’t Right

What I Learnt from Speaking to The Kindest People on Earth

Spark Foundry’s Natalie Sareff and Zach Johnston shared their findings from talking to the kindest people on earth and promote kind acts.

The duo shared their findings from talking to people across the industry, Australia and the world about channelling an industry full of kind people into a kinder industry.
 
• Being kind to yourself: Only once you start being kind to your can it then naturally flow on to others.
• Small acts of kindness: Start with a small act and keep at it.
• Use curiosity to dismantle personal biases.
• Make kind acts available in the industry super obvious and visible.

Zach Johnston and Natalie Sareff

The Work Behind the Work

Linda Fagerlund chief strategy officer ANZ at Mediahub showed attendees how Mediahub made New Balance cool again.

Fagerlund explained New Balance’s challenge of stagnation in the sports and running performance category while it was still growing in fashion and lifestyle.

The team conducted research to understand newer generation’s relationship with money and performance, which influenced their point of view, creative messaging, and campaign strategy.

Linda Fagerlund

The campaign done for New Balance was a multi-market strategy, impacting Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand, and the Middle East, with it leading to a 25% increase in brand preference and double-digit growth in flagship store sales. It marked New Balance’s most successful campaign in Australia.

Fagerlund highlighted the importance of consumer insights in shaping the campaign, from creative messaging to market strategy and consumer experience. The campaign aimed to rebuild New Balance’s running image while capitalizing on their lifestyle success, targeting a segment of young, progressive runners. 

These runners adopted the rebrand, and New Balance is no longer just your dad’s favourite shoe.

Max Boer, Sarah Heitkamp and Linda Fagerlund

Multiplayer Mode

Havas Media Network chief strategy officer Mitchell Long to attendees on a video game journey for his presentation on collaboration between agencies.

“We all know collaboration isn’t easy, in fact sometimes its really hard and that’s okay,” he said. Long cited a survey on industry collaboration that highlighted a fundamental lack of trust between agency partners.

Mitchell Long

“But the reality, our partner agencies are often in fact competitors for that same marketing pie means that working together is often a process of repeated deliberation. The question is: will this other agency screw me over or can we build something great where the money and the credit will be fairly treated?”

Long shared three “industry cheat codes” to help improve collaboration between agencies.

• The Truth Bomb: Radically resets the relationship by aligning agendas between agencies.
• The Seeing Stone: Lays down agreed rules of engagement between agency partners.
• The Love Potion: Strengthens personal connection and integration between agency partners.

Your Client CEO Is Just Not That Into You

Brittany Meale and James Graff from OMD helped attendees better understand their client CEOs, highlighting that only 10% of CEOs have marketing experience and CEOs only spend 3% of their time with customers.

Meale and Graff emphasised the need to simplify marketing jargon and metrics to better align with CEOs’ needs. They suggested that by focusing on creating better customer experiences and demonstrating clear business impact, media agencies can elevate their role and show value to CEOs. 

James Graff and Brittany Meale

Is Media Really For All?

PHD’s Philippa Moig, OMD’s Angus McLeod, Asier Carazo from Atomic 212, and Pawena Kaniah from iProspect teamed up for a frank, challenging and enlightening conversation about the current state of diversity within the industry and in the work produced.

As members of the MFA’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisory Council, they spoke about the actions needed to take to improve diversity and representation in media planning and buying.

They also shared their own personal experience of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Asier Carazo and Philippa Moig

Moig spoke about being a mother of two First Nations children, one of whom is neurodivergent. She said: “For my baby girl, I am hell bent on making sure she grows up in a world where she knows her Aboriginality and neurodivergence are her absolute sources of superpower, and never to be her sources of shame.”

Kaniah shared that finding her feet in the industry was not an easy task. She said: “I walked into this industry as a highly opinionated and confident girl but somehow, something in me muted.

“I started wearing the same clothes as everybody else because I already stood out quite literally. I still go into rooms and look around and the first thing that comes to my brain is ‘how the hell am I still the only one in the room?’.”

Pawena Kaniah

McLeod talked about losing his hearing and suffering a brain injury after he was attacked in 2022. As a person living with a hearing impairment, he said: “if I’m in a room where I can’t speak or don’t have the courage to speak, sometimes I’m left in the dark.

“Not because of choice, but because of something completely out of my control… I’m not the only with issues consuming media, and whilst this has been a challenge as a media professional it’s made me acutely aware of not only the possibilities but also the importance of accessibility of media.”

Kaniah concluded the discussion by telling attendees: “The power is with you – make accessibility features a non-negotiable when it comes to creating and responding to briefs because we can do better.”

Pawena Kaniah, Angus McLeod, Asier Carazo and Philippa Moig

Friendship Bracelets: 2024’s Breakthrough Media Channel

The phenomenon of friendship bracelets was the focus of this next MFA EX presentation, with Marine Turner from EssenceMediacom taking attendees through the social trend and why it’s a new anti-budget media channel.

Marine Turner

Turner outlined the criteria for effective media channels, all of which apply to friendship bracelets as an example that allows for the expression of various brand assets across different audiences:

• Conveying multiple cues at scale
• Facilitating immediate feedback
• Allowing for personalisation
• Supporting complex and nuanced messages

Turner explained how friendship bracelets facilitate immediate feedback through a built-in exchange mechanism and have an engagement rate of 100%, regardless of whether the participants are strangers or familiar. 

Bend It Like Bender: Shaping the Future of Media

Futurama served as the centrepiece for the session on shaping the future of media, presented by This is Flow’s Catherine Rushton, Scott Laird from GroupM, Initiative’s Kate O’Loughlin and Robin O’Connell from LinkedIn.

The four used characters from the animated series – Bender, Fry and Leela to illustrate and unpack the different career pathways in the industry.

Catherine Rushton, Kate O’Loughlin and Robin O’Connell and Scott Laird

Don’t Let Your Bucket Overflow  

Health and performance expert Olly Bridge rounded out MFA Sydney with an re-energising presentation on the importance of prioritising self and well-being among attendees.

Bridge shared his experience as a coach to high performance athletes and related those experiences to media industry people, or corporate athletes, at their peak.

He encouraged people to make changes to their day to improve their physical and mental wellbeing, among them doing small things like switching up between sitting and standing for 20 minutes throughout the work day.

“If you want to be that changer, if you want to make sure you’ve got that energy – you’ve got to make sure you break up your seating time.”

Olly Bridge

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Top image: MFA CEO Sophie Madden

Broadcaster Caroline Wilson featured on the 3AW Rumour File this morning. The implication being that she might be changing channels – moving from Channel Nine to Channel Seven.

The Rumour File caller had his rumour branded “changing channels”. The call went like this:

“Two football personalities from a TV show are following their colleagues to another station.”

The 3AW breakfast team with Ross and Russ and station manager Stephen Beers

The caller didn’t have much more to offer. 3AW breakfast hosts Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft then took over and posed a number of questions. “Are they both male,” asked Stevenson. The show then played a clip of Caroline Wilson claiming, “You’re a bit of beat-up merchant.” Another clip featured Wilson saying, “Absolute bulltish”. The short segment then ended with another Wilson clip: “You’re a pair of absolute dills.”

If Seven has in fact secured the services of Caroline Wilson, and another as-yet-unnamed Nine contributor, they will be joining Kane Cornes who has just one week left at Nine.

The moves to rebuild Seven’s AFL offering comes ahead of the 2025 season where Seven will be able to stream its weekly AFL matches. So far people wishing to stream AFL coverage had to subscribe to either Foxtel or Kayo Sports.

Seven’s new director of network sport, Chris Jones, recently told Mediaweek about the planned changes to programming coming in 2025.

“Our football coverage is fantastic, but there’s certainly opportunities for us to grab more share of audience,” said Jones.

“I would love to have more programming on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next year where we can tell AFL stories, and feature them prominently on 7plus and on Seven.”

What about new commentators and analysts? “When the weekend rolls around, yes, let’s bring in fresh talent. I don’t think we’re done yet from that point of view.”

Seven’s Chris Jones

See also: Seven’s new sports boss: Chris Jones details AFL, cricket plans and a whole lot more

In addition to Cornes, there’s been speculation Seven has also targeted Foxtel’s Gerard Whateley.

“There’s an ambition from our [AFL] team to set the agenda, perhaps a little more than what we have in the past.” Jones talked about “analysis shows for the football lovers where we can dive into what’s going on and why, the politics of football, the trade stories, and more.”

He added the 2024 team continues to do a great job. “Right up until Grand Final day they have all done a remarkable job. On that day we have four-time Premiership players and Premiership captains Luke Hodge and Joel Selwood.

“Dale Thomas has been an absolute sensation this year. He is going from strength to strength and is going to be a huge part of the team moving forward. We already of course have Matthew Richardson who’s probably the most loved, based on all of our sports broadcasts from an expert point of view.

“There’s already great depth, but we’d like to bring even more talent into the team to complement those that we’ve already got.”

See also: Behind the mic at radio ratings magnet: Who’s who in the 3AW breakfast team

The guest list at any memorial event for broadcaster Ron E Sparks was always going to be impressive.

Radio greats turned out on Saturday to pay tribute and celebrate the career of Sparks who passed away earlier this year.

Those on hand included the chief executive of ARN Ciaran Davis where Sparks most-recently was the host of the WSFM morning show for many years. MC for the gathering was Nine and smoothfm presenter Richard Wilkins. The place was the Treehouse Hotel in North Sydney.

Among the people who took turns at the microphone were presenters Rob Duckworth,  and Tim Webster, programmers Charlie Fox and Cherie Romaro and good friends and current breakfast stars Brendan Jones and Ben Fordham.

Other guests attending included Ron E’s son Michael, Ian Grace, Susie Michaels, David Rogerson, Mike Byrne, David D Whitcomb, Jason Morrison, Dave Gibson, Guy Ashford, Russell Thomas, Phil O’Neil, and Kate Hurley.

There was even a rare public appearance from brothers Brenden and Robbie Wood, along with Brenden’s wife Kirinee.

Wilkins said he first met Sparks when he was involved at a 2UW relaunch, working for Cherie Romaro on the arrival of Baz and Pilko in Sydney.

Fordham spoke about how he only met Sparks relatively recently when Fordham moved to the lower North Shore, meeting Sparks in the local café. Fordham went up and introduced himself, to which Sparks replied, “I know who you are.”

Duckworth spoke about his friend and colleague, calling him “the greatest DJ”.

Fordham revealed that Spotify have a special collection of great Ron E Sparks highlights. There is also a podcast of the speeches on Fordham’s Spotify feed, also on Brenden Wood’s podcast feed.

For more on Ron E Sparks don’t mis this obituary published by The Sydney Morning Herald and written by Glenn A Baker:
Genius of broadcasting ‘listened to by half the available audience’
[Read more]

Brenden Wood with Peter Clay

Wood with Phil O’Neil

Sydney radio greats Tim Webster and Ben Fordham with Wood brothers Brenden and Robbie and Kate Hurley

Top photo: Brendan Jones and Ben Fordham with Dave Rogerson
Photos: Brenden Wood and Dave Rogerson

Forethought has announced the appointment of three new staff and two promotions for BrandComms.AI, its new generative AI platform for effective advertising.

The platform allows marketers and brands to generate on-strategy creative ideas anchored in consumer behaviour and tested with real consumers.

Isobell Roberts has been promoted from head of digital and communications to creative and communications director after a year of concentrated development co-leading BrandComms.AI.

Zoe Dyer has also been promoted from designer to AI creative engineer. She has been with the marketing advisory, strategy and analytics company since 2022, working across myriad client projects and playing a key role in integrating AI-driven design solutions.

Forethought founder and executive chairman Ken Roberts said: “BrandComms.AI is trained on Forethought’s 30-plus years of marketing science methodologies, all delivered in a single platform. So, it demands the best, smartest and most innovative team to deliver on this legacy, and the diverse range of skillsets we have here will do exactly that.

“As Gen AI technology rolls on – and scepticism about other products rises – we are confident our offering is at the forefront of game-changing marketing effectiveness, in part, because of our rich Content Store feeding the inputs required to produce creative concepts. I am excited to be able to promote Isobell and Zoe, and to welcome our new members to the team.”

Daniel Lord, Forethought partner and head of product, said: “We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the response BrandComms.AI has received from clients and partners since its launch in May. These appointments are another step in ensuring brands and their agencies can be confident that our platform is robust, tested and secure.”

In further appointments, Annie Dang joins BrandComms.AI as senior platform developer from Nektar.ai in Singapore, where she was a senior software engineer. A specialist in software development, machine learning and cloud infrastructure, Annie’s 12-year career also includes stints in Seoul and London.

Thomas Berard has been appointed to the team as AI designer. He is a multi-disciplinary artist with an emphasis on AI prompt engineering and has worked collaboratively alongside Sony Music, Cirque Du Soleil, Jason Derulo, Eskimo Joe and Slash from Guns N’ Roses. His viral animated content has reached tens of millions of viewers across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Reddit.

Isabella Wills joins Forethought also as an AI designer. Wills, a recent Bachelor of Design graduate, is currently working toward a graduate certificate in programming and development and brings her design and tech skillset to the BrandComms.AI team.

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Top image – Back row: Zoe Dyer, Isabella Wills, Annie Dang. Middle: Isobell Roberts. Front: Daniel Lord, Thomas Berard

Australia has been ranked as the top winter holiday destination for UK travellers, according to Taboola’s analysis of readership trends.

The open web recommendations platform examined data from the past six weeks to identify which warm weather destinations were in British holidaymakers’ sights.

Australia was the most-read-about winter holiday destination, despite being double the distance from the UK. It notched up a huge 3.9 million page views in the UK market over the past 45 days, while views of articles related to Sydney also increased, growing by 35%.

Taboola data showed Tokyo was also increasing in popularity as a must-do holiday destination, with views of Tokyo articles increasing by 127% over the past six weeks.

The top 10 warm-weather winter holiday destinations for Brits this year are:

1. Australia – 3.9m page views
2. The Caribbean – 2.4m page views
3. South Africa – 2.1m page views
4. Egypt – 1.8m page views
5. Mexico – 1.7m page views
6. Dubai – 1.2m page views
7. Thailand – 850k page views
8. Miami – 800k page views
9. Tenerife – 594k page views
10. Morocco – 386k page views

Like many Australians, a large portion of UK residents are keen to stay closer to home for the holidays, preferring staycations or short-haul winter breaks.

Taboola data showed views of articles related to UK tourism also increased in popularity in recent weeks, growing by a whopping 250%.

The views are likely being driven by the global cost-of-living crisis affecting many households, with people tightening their holiday budgets and doubling down on local stays.  According to Taboola insights, UK news articles around budgeting, money saving and the cost-of-living crisis were viewed 9.3 million times in the past 45 days.

Dave Struzzi, communications lead, Taboola said: “Readership data provides a unique insight into Brits’ likely travel plans this winter and tells two very different tales.

“On one hand, interest in warm weather destinations like Australia, The Caribbean and South Africa is spiking, highlighting strong demand for long haul trips this winter. Simultaneously, readership of articles around staycations, Christmas markets and traditional European winter destinations such as Germany are also on the rise, suggesting many Brits will stay closer to home.”

Taboola readership data provides unique insights into a range of topics, including travel plans, providing critical trends for industries, brands and marketers worldwide.

The Paris Olympics and Paralympics coverage increased online sports consumption by 5% in August, the latest Ipsos iris data has revealed.

The online sports category’s audience hit a new peak last month, as Australians consumed content surrounding Raygun’s now-iconic breakdancing performances, skateboarding’s young competitors, and Aussies’ prowess in the pool drew record audience numbers.

The 5% month-on-month growth in the sports category represents an extra 735,000 Australians for a total sports audience of more than 15.6 million. The new record since the inception of Ipsos iris, followed an already significant 7% (962,000) increase in audience numbers for July, making two consecutive months for record Australian sport audience numbers online.

Sports also featured in many of the major news stories that consumed Aussies’ attention in August, particularly all the latest updates from the Olympics, the Paralympics opening ceremony, the Olympics’ Imane Khelif’s boxing gender scandal, and the NRL premiership news.

Global events, including the Southport stabbings in the UK and subsequent riots, and Brit band Oasis’s reunion announcement, plus local entertainment stories, including the Logie Awards and TV shows The Voice and Dancing With The Stars, saw Australians seek out online news websites and apps as an essential source for big news story events.

More than 20.7 million people used a news website or app in August, reaching 96.5% of online Australians aged 14+.
 
The chart below shows the News brands’ ranking during August 2024 by online audience size.

Ipsos iris, Australia’s digital audience measurement currency endorsed by IAB Australia, showed that overall, 21.4 million Australians aged 14+ used the internet in August and spent on average 4.6 hours per day, or almost 143 hours for the month, online – an equal record with last month.

The most consumed website and app categories in August were social networking (21.4 million), search engines (21.3 million), technology (21.3 million), retail and commerce (21.1 million) and entertainment (21 million).

The social media category beat search engines for the top consumed category for the first time in recent months, notching up the largest audience number since the launch of Ipsos iris in January 2023. The games category experienced a month on month increase of 8% in time spent, sitting at more than 638 minutes spent on games websites and apps per person.

The retail and commerce category also peaked in August, recording its highest-ever engagement numbers, increasing by 8% to 456 minutes per person.

Homes & property category hits Ipsos iris peak, amid renewed confidence in real estate market

The homes and property category recorded an all-time audience high in August, peaking at just over 14 million Australians. The figure was the highest number recorded in both 2024 and in Ipsos iris history, with overall audience numbers increasing by more than 300,000 month on month. Major property brands realestate.com.au and Domain also recorded month on month audience increases of 4% and 5% respectively.

The data reflects a nationwide trend for increased property listings this Spring, as new listings in the nation’s capital cities reached their highest levels in more than a decade. New PropTrack data showed capital city new listing volumes were 1.6% higher year on year in August – the highest they have been since 2012. The listing increases come amid renewed confidence in the property market, with interest rates expected to drop in 2025.

The chart below shows the Homes and Property brands’ ranking during August 2024 by online audience size.

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Top image: Telaya Blacksmith

Friday night footy saw the Swans find a way to the 2024 AFL Grand Final with a win over Port Adelaide which ranked #1 show in the TV ratings. The game was shown live on Seven.

In the NRL, the Sharks upset the Cowboys who some thought were the only team likely to challenge the dominance of the Panthers and the Storm. The game was shown live on NIne and 9now.

Seven’s Bruce McAvaney back at the footy on Saturday. Here with Abbey Holmes.

AFL headline number: Swans v Port 1,183,000 Total TV National Average Audience

Seven released these details about its Friday night Preliminary Finals TV ratings.

Seven’s big Friday, AFL #1 in all demos, reaches 3.02m
Seven #1 nationally in total TV
National total TV audience share: 51.5%

AFL Friday Night Football – Preliminary Final 1: #1 program, reaches 3.02 million

7NEWS: #1 news program, reaches 1.92 million
Sunrise: #1 at breakfast
Seven Network reaches 6.34 million Australians nationally. 7plus up 19% year-on-year.
Seven Network: #1 nationally in total TV in all people with a 51.5% share.
Seven Network: #1 nationally in total TV in 25 to 54s with a 51.1% share.
Seven Network: #1 nationally in total TV in 16 to 39s with a 51.9% share.
Seven Network: #1 nationally in total TV in grocery shoppers with a 51.3% share.

AFL Friday Night Football – Preliminary Final 1: #1 program in all people, 25 to 54s and 16 to 39s. National reach 3.02 million, national audience 1.18 million.

7NEWS Friday: #1 news program. National reach 1.92 million, national audience 1.14 million.

AFL Friday Night Football – Preliminary Final 1 – Pre-Match: National reach 1.36 million, national audience 808,000.

The Chase Australia Friday: National reach 1.13 million, national audience 540,000.
Sunrise Friday: #1 breakfast program. National reach 919,000, national audience 404,000. 29% more viewers than Today.

See also: Bruce McAvaney back at the G: Broadcasting icon to supercharge 7AFL finals

NRL headline number: Sharks v Cowboys 845,000 Total TV National Average Audience

1,811,000 Total TV National Average Reach
120,000 BVOD National Average Audience

See also: TV Guide: 2024 NRL Finals Week Two on Nine, 9Now and Fox League on Kayo and Foxtel