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The Women's Big Bash League's move to early summer as a stand-alone competition is being considered an early success, with viewership significantly up.
Cricket Australia's gamble to move the Women's Big Bash to the start of summer has paid off in viewing numbers, with the league's free-to-air ratings up 25 per cent.
In its maiden iteration as a stand-alone competition, the tournament is benefiting from the clear air at the start of the summer with the rise compared to the same round last season.
It comes after several players were privately concerned over whether the league was ready to make the leap to the new position in October and November.
But those fears have now seemingly been allayed, with the success pushing the Seven Network to seriously considering moving more matches from 7Mate to their primary channel.
It can also be revealed the competition's presence on free-to-air television even allowed it to out-rate the men's Twenty20 international last Sunday, which was behind a paywall.
An average audience of 236,000 tuned in for Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy's record 199-run stand for the Sydney Sixers against the Melbourne Stars on Seven.
In comparison of 198,000 watched the Australia's men play Pakistan on Fox Sports, not accounting for live stream numbers.
"It's proof we made the right decision to pull the WBBL into its own window," Sixers general manager Jodie Hawkins said.
"The players have been really respectful to working with the broadcaster and also played some really good cricket."
Crowds are, however, slightly down for the league, after they also experienced a drop last season on the back of less double headers.
"We knew we were going to take a hit there in order to build a stand-alone window," Hawkins said.
"We're okay with that, because the ratings have been really positive.
"It's going to take some time to educated around attendances in October and November.
"But you've got to make the change at some point and the ratings are telling us that we made the right choice, and the crowds will come."
On the field the competition has kept pace with last year's standard.
The run-rate has dropped slightly from 7.23 to 7.19 an over, while close to the same amount of boundaries are on track to be hit.
The figures come in a huge summer for the women's game, ahead of Australia's home title defence of their Twenty20 World Cup title in February and March.
