In 2018-19, SBS Sport’s digital strategy continued to evolve, as SBS explored more ways to engage Australians in sporting moments across its platforms.

A multi-platform offering for the Tour de France provided audiences with more ways to experience the Tour. Coverage delivered more than one million live streams across SBS’s digital platforms, including the market-leading SBS Tour Tracker app, which saw a significant increase in younger users. Complementary digital content, delivered across the Cycling Central social media profiles, delivered positive growth and generated online conversation for each stage of the race.

In 2018-19, SBS launched a new live stream offering to maximise its sporting rights and accessibility beyond SBS’s linear channels. SBS’s The World Game and Cycling Central platforms streamed select football and cycling events including the FIFA U20s World Cup^TM and European Cycling events from Hungary, Spain, the United Kingdom and Turkey. The ground-breaking women’s motor racing series, the W Series, was also introduced exclusively as part of SBS’s live stream offering, delivering on SBS’s commitment to women’s sport.

Overall, SBS Sport streamed 875 hours of live sport and expanded its already extensive catalogue of catch-up content, with a wide variety of video content available for audiences. The strategy is paying off, with audience engagement growing with live streamed events and long-form editorial content in On Demand and Sport digital products such as The World Game.

To drive deeper engagement through social media, SBS Sport produced a dedicated FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019^TM live Twitter show, which provided a lead-in to the daily highlights program broadcast on SBS. Facebook Live shows became a regular feature of the football season, creating a two-way, interactive conversation with SBS audiences.

Sport also used The World Game Facebook profile to livestream the finals of the Arafura Games held in Darwin, featuring the first Indigenous national men’s and women’s football teams playing representative football. It was a historic moment for the Indigenousroos and Koalas football teams.