MELBOURNE, February 16, 2021 (AO Press Release)

More fans than ever before are turning to YouTube to complement their Australian Open experience, with viewing of AOTV – the tournament’s official video on demand (VoD) channel – hitting an all-time high in week one of the 2021 tournament.

In the first four days alone, AOTV videos were viewed more than 12 million times by fans in 50 countries around the world, a 21% increase on 2020. Watch time also increased by 29% to 29-million minutes with fans tuning in on mobile, desktop computers, TVs, tablets and game consoles.

World No.2 Rafael Nadal is dominating the channel’s 2021 output so far, with highlight videos featuring his matches against Laslo Djere and Michael Mmoh sitting in the top-five most-viewed videos to date. Fans are also tuning into AOTV in their millions to catch up on the Australian Open campaigns of Nick Kyrgios, world No.1 Novak Djokovic, Naomi Osaka, Bianca Andreescu and Su-Wei Hseih as well as Canadians Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov.

Perhaps inspired by the success of Serena Williams, Jennifer Brady, Shelby Rogers, Jessica Pegula and MacKenzie McDonald, American fans are leading the AOTV charge globally, with 3.5-million tuning in to the channel’s coverage of 2021 match highlights, interviews, press conferences, features and classic matches. Japan, India, Australia and Canada round out the top five AOTV viewing nations.

Tennis Australia Supervising Producer of Non-Live Content Xavier Muhlebach said there were a range of reasons for the year-on-year growth which follows a 67% leap in viewership and engagement in 2020.

“Global lockdowns have resulted in greater engagement with online video, and we’re seeing a more diverse audience streaming video on demand more frequently,” Muhlebach said.

“With the tournament normally taking place during school holidays, we’re also seeing a huge spike in domestic views, with fans logging on after work and school to catch up on all the action they’ve missed throughout the day (and some during the day too, but don’t tell the boss).”

“The content we offer on AOTV is compelling to fans of all ages because it encompasses the most up to the minute – and highly bingeable – on court action from this year’s tournament, and also offers great depth with original long form feature and documentary content including our ‘Lean Back’ series and ‘On with the Show’ feature, classic matches, and thought-to-be-lost interviews from our extensive Australian Open archives.”

Top 5 2021 AO highlights so far