Nine looks to a summer without sport after Australian Open deal with Seven falls through
Seven and Nine have walked away from discussions over a 2019 Australian Open deal, which would have seen the competition air on the Nine Network ahead of the start of its 2020 contract.
Nine boss Hugh Marks told the Sydney Morning Herald he had ended discussions after Seven rejected his network’s “very fair offer”, leaving Nine without a high profile sport over the 2018-19 summer period.
Nine scored itself a five year broadcasting rights deal with Tennis Australia from 2020, but was in negotiations with Seven to buy the rights for 2019
Would have thought that 7 would jump at the chance to reduce their debt by $50m and help them hit the annualised savings targets but heck, nothing surprises me from there anymore.
Will be interesting to see what, if any, impact no sport in summer will have on 9. A lot more money to spend on two weeks of content and some great research for publishers and brands on the true value of sport.
Why is there still a “main channel”? This is surely a throwback to simulcasting and has no relevance in today’s digital television landscape. SBS is even leading the way with two HD channels.