Ozone’s Reading the Nation insight series provides a seven-day view of the topical news and seasonal events driving reader engagement across our nationwide audience of more than 40m online consumers.
Boxing’s biggest night – as Britain’s Tyson Fury lost out on the unified world heavyweight championship crown to the brilliant Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk – drove Boxing page views to 6.5x growth week on week. As well as the fight, the final weekend of the regular football season and the US PGA Championship delivered another knockout week for the Sport across Ozone.
Topical News
Last week, the unveiling of the first official portrait of King Charles, by the British artist Jonathan Yeo, drove Arts & Culture content across the Ozone platform to +78% reader engagement growth. With critical reaction to the portrait mixed, within the category page views for the Fine Art Painting topic more than doubled.
Also last week, a trio of major events across sporting disciplines increased reader engagement with Sport content to +15% growth. Tyson Fury’s heavyweight fight with Oleksandr Usyk drove 6.5x higher Boxing page views, the US PGA Championship increased Golf to 6.9x growth and the final weekend of the regular football season drove Football page views a rise of +5%.
Seasonal Events
The annual ‘Nibbies’ – or British Book Awards – at which authors Katherine Rundell, GT Karber and Rebecca F Kuang all picked up literary accolades, took place last week to drive Book & Literature to +44% page views growth week on week.
Elsewhere, the start of A-level exams for students across the country last Monday increased reader engagement with Education content. Growth of 10% for the category overall was driven by 4x higher Exam topic page views.
Finally, with a week to go until the school half term holidays, Travel page views grew +3% to c.27m.
Coming Up
May
Eurovision: Typically, Music & Audio page views will grow by +38% in May on Eurovision interest. As an appointment-to-view TV event, the content will drive related Television growth of c.20%
Football season ends: The end of the season and cup finals drive Football engagement to avg. May growth of a third. Football interest will continue into June and July with the Euros
Spring Bank Holiday: On average, Bank Holiday page views increase by +28% in May on the Spring Bank Holiday
June
Champions League Final: Football page views grew +52% in June last year as Man City won the Champions League final. The 2024 final takes place on Saturday, 1 June.
EURO 2024: Expect Football engagement to be c.30% higher in June 2024 when UEFA EURO 2024 kicks off on Friday, 14 June. The final takes place on Sunday, 14 July.
Father’s Day: Planning for the perfect Father’s Day present grew Gifting page views by more than a quarter last year. This year, the occasion takes place on Sunday, 16 June.
Glastonbury Festival: Headlined this year by Dua Lipa, SZA and Coldplay, expect Festivals page views to increase 3.5x on Glastonbury and the start of summer festival season.
July
Wimbledon: 31.7m Tennis page views in July 2023 grew +330% month on month on significant reader interest in the Championships Wimbledon.
British Grand Prix: 10.7m Auto Racing/Formula 1 page views last July when the British Grand Prix took place were +25% higher vs. 2023 season average.
The Olympic Games: When it began in July 2021, the Tokyo Games drove Olympic Sports page to significant 12x growth month on month.
The Euros: Last July, interest in the start of the Women’s World Cup drove 305m monthly Football page views – the second highest level ever.
August
Edinburgh Fringe: Fine Art page views will grow with the Theatre topic increasing by more than 50%. The festival will also drive Comedy Events, from Events & Attractions, to c.3x growth.
Exam results: A-level and GCSE results drive page views for Exam Results, from Education, to 3.9x growth.
Paris Games: Paralympics page views were 7.9x higher than normal during the Tokyo Games in August 2021.
