TEAMtalk media is the leading digital sports content provider in South Africa, according to latest reports by the industry's governing bodies.

The latest ratings published by Nielsen Netrating, the online measurement tool used by the Online Publishers' Association (OPA) to track the number of users accessing members' websites, put TEAMtalk media and Football365 at the head of the queue.

In October 2009 Nielsen reported that TEAMtalk media was the seventh most popular publisher, and Football365 the fifth most popular brand amongst online readers. This makes TEAMtalk media the most popular sports content source published in South Africa, with 1,047,534 unique browsers accessing the Football365 brand. This equates to 87 065 unique browser views daily.

After auditing the same results, the Web Association of South Africa's (WASA) places TEAMtalk media's Football365 brand as the largest in the sport category and third overall, behind News24 and IOL News.

This is quite a remarkable feat considering that this was achieved on the back of the performance of just one brand, Football365, which represents a fraction of the network's extensive range of online offerings. While Nielsen only tracks the Football365 brand, TEAMtalk media's entire sporting content network consists of over 15 titles, including Sky Sports; TEAMtalk; Sporting Life; Sport365; PlanetRugby; Planet F1; Cricket365; and Golf365.

In addition, Football365 is the most popular online destination for users between the ages of 19 and 29, who access the Internet at work and home, according to Nielsen's statistics. More than a third of Football365's readership is loyal to the brand. The typical Football365 South African reader lives in a major city; works full-time; and has tertiary education. Almost all of the readers have a mobile phone.

“The nature of online publishing is that content is almost immediately available, therefore the life span of an exclusive is getting shorter and shorter. This means that you can't just solely focus on being the first with the news or match reports, you also need to glean some interesting feature spin-offs. This, and editorial integrity, is the surest way to retain your readers,” said Lashias Ncube, Editor-in-Chief at TEAMtalk media.

“These results are extremely gratifying given that they are based on only a fraction of our entire network. This anomaly is due to the ongoing conversations in progress between the various industry bodies to define exactly what a South African web site is. There is no doubt that a shake up of the online ad industry is necessary. In the meantime there is no question of complacency stepping in and the challenge for us is to transpose our considerable international experience into the local market,” said Barrie Jarrett, TEAMtalk Media Founder.