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‘We’re the best growth partner out there’: Stan Sport gets in the ring
Ben Kimber, director of Stan Sport, talks to Mumbrella about steering the first digital Olympics, anti-siphoning laws, and the rise of streaming sport in Australia.
Back when Ben Kimber, director of Stan Sport, worked at the Sydney Morning Herald, they would talk about the two things everyone cared about: the weather and the Olympics.
Kimber got to see the last half of this adage first hand during 2024, as he steered the first fully digital Olympic Games offering seen in this country, with eight channels running all 329 events in 4K and in multiple languages, resulting in a Stan Sport subscriber spike of over 50% during the broadcast.
“The Olympics is so unique in the size and scale and the reach,” Kimber tells Mumbrella. “And so, when you have that large an audience that is interested, there’s absolutely a glow effect for everything you do after – bringing people to our platform, introducing them to our platform, the way that we treat sports, the way that we present everything in a way that is actually really valuable, that they can see the value that we bring.
“The Olympics absolutely did that for us.”
The ‘afterglow’ or ‘halo effect’ of the Olympics broadcast is something that Nine repeatedly touted during its Upfront event late last year. Kimber says Stan Sport is enjoying this at the moment. For him, the success of Stan’s Olympics presentation validated the approach they take to all their sports properties.
“We treated the Olympics the way we treat all our sports, which is we don’t just turn them on and put them on the platform,” he explains.
“When we deal with a sport, we see them as partners and we look at what value we are offering the sport, and the value we offer the fans. How do we make the fans understand that we’re really great custodians of what they love? The Olympics is just the best example of that to date, the way we really lent in and created that experience.”
Stan held a showcase event in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon, where Kimber revealed that Stan Sport has partnered with the world’s fastest growing mixed martial arts organisation, the PFL, ahead of its local launch. Moments before announcing this to the room, he explained to Mumbrella how the deal – as with all its sporting rights partnerships – is a result of years of groundwork.
“The PFL Australia has been a partner of ours with some of their overseas content for a couple of years now,” Kimber explains. “And they’re making some really, really big moves internationally, and it’s going to arrive here in Australia at the end of the year.”
Given NSW Premier Chris Minns confirmed the state paid a cool $16 million to secure one UFC title card for Sydney in 2026, the timing of the PFL’s Australian launch is fortuitous for Stan Sport – but the partnership is no knee-jerk reaction. Kimber said getting such a deal over the line “always takes time”.
“They’re actually in the middle of a global expansion – they’ve launched Africa, they’re in Europe, they’re in America, and they’ve always had their sights on this area and this country.
“They know how good the audience is here and how good the quality of the fighters are. So they’ve been looking at it for a while and it’s getting closer and closer. And we’re quite excited to talk about it now as a reality at the end of the year.”
Stan is leaning into the fight game, with former UFC superstar Tyson Pedro making his boxing debut in a fight broadcast live and ad-free for Stan Sport subscribers next Wednesday – a move away from the traditional pay-per-view model into one that rewards streamers. In the US, Netflix saw a 42.3% year-on-year spike in subscribers for the month they aired the Mike Tyson v Jake Paul match, so it’s a model with proven results.
“Boxing in Australia needs the right support for the fighters to give them a platform to build,” Kimber reasons. “Not everyone’s a pay-per-view star out of the box. We really see ourselves as partners with people – we’re not out there trying to sign every single boxing talent out there, but looking for the right talent that we think has something special – and then partnering with them to grow them. And Tyson Pedro certainly fits that.”
Because of this approach, and Stan Sport’s unique position within the Nine family, Kimber said the streaming service tends to avoid “going hard after a lot of sports [rights]”, instead looking for sports that he believes Stan can uniquely benefit. But, at the end of the day, it also has to make business sense – which isn’t always a given for sporting rights deals.
“We are very, very much aware that we have to build a business,” Kimber explains. “Historically, sport has been a loss leader in a lot of organisations, and we want to make sure that we are a profitable business for Nine – and that means the right partners and the right value.
“That means, what’s the right price? What’s the right amount to pay for a sport that we can then build something around, and build something with.”
Kimber said that “if you talk to any sports administrator in Australia, they believe their sport can grow”, regardless of how big any given league actually is.
This is evident in ARLC chair Peter V’landys’ zealous expansion into Las Vegas for the NRL – and the recent historical AFL rights deal, with Foxtel and Seven paying $4.5 billion for a seven-year contract. This belief in endless growth provides a challenge.
“They believe they can grow, and we believe we’re the best growth partner out there,” Kimber said. “So we absolutely talk to all sports, and we look at how we can add value, and I don’t think that’s about being big or small.
“That’s about looking at their audience and thinking, ‘well, how can it get bigger, and how can we help that?’ And paying accordingly, in terms of what it’s worth, rather than what the inflation has gotten it up to.”
At Nine, Kimber is in a unique position where Australia’s current anti-siphoning laws – which prevent subscription television services from bidding for the exclusive rights to important sporting events, giving free-to-air television network first crack – both limit what he is able to do with Stan Sport, and protect the parent company’s sporting assets. So, how does he feel about the current laws?
“We, as a business, obviously are in the unique position of being able to utilise content across free and paid,” he notes.
“I totally understand the commitment to anti-siphoning, and the way the government goes about it, but for us – we have an opportunity to reach both the free and the paid audience ourselves. So, within the auspices of what we do, we can actually really manage that experience, so that we can grow a sport at the same time as making sure that we provide a valuable core for it.”
As someone who builds audiences for sports, Kimber is excited about one event in particular this year – for the first time in 12 years, the British & Irish Lions will return to Australia in 2025 for a rugby union tour. He believes the nation is under-prepared for the influx.
“The thing that people forget is how big the British and Irish Lions are,” he said. “Once every 12 years, and it is absolutely massive.
“It’ll touch every major city and town in the country, every state. It’s an old-school rugby tour, and it’s more than a decade ago, so people forget that 40,000 absolutely passionate fans are going to land and go bananas for this.
“It’s going to be huge, so we’re very, very excited about that.”
Oasis and the British & Irish Lions coming down under in 2025 – you’ve been warned.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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One of best digital and sport minds in Australia right here. Achieved great things at Fox Sports. No surprise Stan and Nine on this track under his leadership.
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