Almost 3.4m tune in to watch SBS’s broadcast of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025

National broadcaster SBS is celebrating the successful nine-day coverage of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025, during which 3.366 million Australians tuned in. This included two evening sessions where the audience reach exceeded one million people.

The two nights with the biggest audiences were Wednesday, 17 September, when teen sensation Gout Gout made his debut in the 200m heats, and the final night, Sunday, 21 September, which featured high jumper Nicola Olyslagers winning Australia’s only gold medal in Tokyo. The final night was also one of four nights when SBS was the highest rating broadcaster of the event in Australia (national reach).

SBS’s expert commentary team of Bruce McAvaney, Tamsyn Manou and David Basheer guided audiences through all the drama and excitement of the championships, broadcast live and free across SBS, SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand.

After nine days, SBS had registered 10.3 million Total TV Consumption Hours, of which nine million were Linear Broadcast Consumption Hours.

The broadcast was supported by an innovative and extensive social media offering that also struck a chord with the audience. SBS Sport’s five social media platforms – Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X and YouTube – attracted more than 37 million views of World Athletics Championships content from 9-22 September, including more than 16 million views on Instagram and more than 13 million on TikTok.

The championships featured the biggest ever Australian team (86 athletes), which delivered medal-winning performances from Olyslagers, Kurtis Marschall (bronze, pole vault), Jess Hull (bronze, 1500m) and Mackenzie Little (bronze, javelin); two fourth places (Ky Robinson in the 5000m and Matt Denny in the discus); and the much-anticipated senior international debut of Gout Gout.

SBS Director of Sport Ken Shipp said: “It’s inspiring to see athletics connect with such a broad audience, and SBS is proud to be the home of passionate fans of the sport. Our expert commentary team delivered an authentic, world-class broadcast that honoured the athletes and brought viewers closer to every moment of triumph, drama and excitement. From world records to Australian medals, the coverage captured it all – and audiences responded with enthusiasm to our commitment to showing every session live and free across multiple platforms.’’

Audience Testimonials

“I would like to thank the commentary team – Bruce, Tamsyn and Bash – for doing a superb job covering these championships. So knowledgeable and such passion. 10 out of 10. The highlight of the year for me.”

“Excellent coverage of the Athletics Championships. The commentary, the production, all the behind the track stuff. Incredibly impressed. I hope you continue to present these large sporting events. Marvellous work.”

“Thank you for the fabulous coverage of World Athletics Championships… I was totally obsessed with the WAC and watched little else over 9 days. Very, very enjoyable.”

“Your commentary team were outstanding… Normally, I would not sit for hours watching a sports event, but as the coverage was so good and allowed us to “get to know” the different athletes, we really felt invested in how they would fare in competition. Add to that the sheer joy of seeing such skill and athleticism and the camaraderie among athletes. We loved it all. Thank you!”

“Just wanted to thank the whole team. The evening sessions were awesome… I thought I’d just flip it on for a quick look, but got drawn in to watching hours of it.”

Audience Reach Source: VOZ National Total TV | Date Range: 13/09/2025 – 22/09/2025 | Data: Overnight | Market: National | Demo: Total People | Metric: Reach (Broadcast TV: 1 Cons Min | BVOD: 15 Seconds)

Consumption Source: VOZ National Total TV | SBS & SBS Viceland | Total People | Overnight | Total TV, Broadcast, BVOD | Average Audience & Consumption Hours (using Minutes Viewed data type)

Social Media Source: Sprout Social

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