Nine dumps Wimbledon
The Nine Network has dumped Wimbledon after almost 40 years as it readies for a bidding war for AFL rights.
- Published by David Knox
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The Nine Network has dumped Wimbledon after almost 40 years as it readies for a bidding war for AFL rights.
“Unfortunately, it (Wimbledon) hasn’t rated well in recent years and we think that money is now better invested on other sporting properties,” GTV9 boss Jeff Browne told the Herald Sun.
The move is tipped to save Nine about $15 million in licence fees and production costs, money it can now throw at the AFL and NRL.
Nine is believed to be particularly keen on pioneering Monday night football and is also committed to showing all games live, which Seven has shied away from doing.
But AFL TV audiences have been on a slide.
Seven’s Friday night football audiences are down 8.9 per cent, from an average of 462,000 last year to 421,000 this season. TEN’s Saturday night audiences dropped from a Melbourne average of 374,000 last year to 283,000 this season.
“Some slots are up, some are down. The ratings are still generally good, and we are certainly pleased that we are on track to break the attendance record and the club membership record,” AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan told the Herald Sun.
Source: Herald Sun
62 Responses
Good. I hate tennis with a passion.
I hope 9 doesn’t win the AFL, though…
$15 million for Wimbledon a 2-weeks event W0W it took them time to dump it.
Channel 9 you fools, next year is the first time I can watch Wimbledon properly as I no longer have to worry about my high school studies and you decide to dump it. This is outrageous.
Maybe it took 11hrs and 05mins. Over three days. They might have had a deciding meeting and got a result of 68 points Wimbledon 70 points AFL Bidding. This is just unusual. What will Kenny, Nuke and Stollie think of this. Game Set and Match for Nine!
It wasn’t 15 million a year, it was 2 million a year and i think IMG wanted it to go to 3 million a year
I suspect that this has a lot to do with the decline of aussie tennis . No star Oz players (sorry Hewitt fans) for people to stay up for. A very parochial decision from 9 but what do you expect from that lot. I notice that the British Open golf has also been dumped by them (highlights only). In the place of these they will probably run repeats of 20 to1 and Hey Hey. What fun, can’t wait (Not).
People… 15 Million out of 900 Million is nothing… 9 would havebeen happy to pay that just to stop anyone else from having it… Sanity has prevailed.. Thats what happens when the company is not owned by packer…
Nines delayed games won’t be missed, give the rights to Foxtel or ONE. Looks like Firey and Newk need to find another job. Thanks guys!
The rights for Wimbledon would have been boosted by the period where Rafter & Hewitt were making the later rounds. If you get an australian in a semi or a final at a decent hour then you get Origin type ratings but Australia wide. Guess the writing is on the wall as far as that happening regularly now.
Also I’d be shocked if there is any prime time AFL live into QLD or NSW next deal. Anything other then a afternoon game is too much of a liability.
fox and 10 will probably share it. as long as 7 don’t get it i will be happy
Re “Nine is believed to be particularly keen on pioneering Monday night football and is also committed to showing all games live, which Seven has shied away from doing.”
Should Nine’s bid be successful, I am certain that it would not show AFL live in southern NSW or the ACT, I never did during its previous tenure.
foxtel show it live anyway dont they?
This doesn’t surprise me, this year it was as if 9 didn’t care at all about the event.. I barely saw a mention or an advert, and the tournament was over before I even knew. If it wasn’t for that world record match on the outside courts I wouldn’t have even known Wimbledon was on!
So Nine was paying $15 million a year for it & what do they deal with it ?, only us selected matches late at night !!!, what a bargain, just let have Fox Sports buy it, at least that way they can dedicate a whole channel to it !!
Not surprised, throw away years and years of tradition for the network for a little bit of money, the people that run Nine make me sick, it was the same for the US Masters, lucky that was picked up by ONE/TEN. Sadly, I do not think that Wimbledon will be as lucky given its more expensive and is over a 2 week period. Hopefully Seven or Ten can make the gamble or maybe even the ABC.
Treatment of grand slam tennis on tv has been horrific lately and given the ratings which are not lackluster at all, AO rates fantastically each year, French Open final got 1.1 million viewers for crying out loud and even Wimbledon did alright given it was against the World Cup (the latter round of the women’s was low but given how onesided that was, no surprising). It just show no class to tennis fans and sports fans in general.
I will find other methods to watch Wimbledon like I do with all other tournaments and with Nine’s worse coverage I had been watching more online anyway but any FTA coverage is a loss for the sport, crap on how the coverage is bad and everything but it exposures the spot to everyone instead of a select few.
am i reading that right, it was $15 million dollars?? what a waste of money if it was. should have dumped it ages ago.
I cannot see the big networks paying up to 15-20 million for the rights to tennis when it’s broadcast at that late time slot especially with the big 3 positioning them selves with the rights to AFL,NRL…..also what AFL supporters have to understand is that AFL does not rate in NSW .
Ten should step up and buy the rights! It’s a great sport and gets alot of viewers, plus ten could have it in hd?
@Paull: You forgot SBS: FIFA and ABC: W League!
I would certainly be happy if the codes were partitioned that way and it would make things simpler for everybody, but the TV viewing figures are not equivalent. AFL is def the code that is most attractive to advertisers/stations nationally with NRL being the pick for NSW & QLD.
Different start times each night, some matches not shown from the start due to other programming, cricket on instead at other times – did Wimbledon have any hope of rating well?
The reason it hasn’t rated well, IMO, is because the last few years of Nine’s coverage has been shocking. This year was the worst, interspersing the tennis with cricket, I hope wherever it goes they learn from Nine’s mistakes!
One less reason to watch FTA tv.
And why can’t SBS take over the rights? They have World Cup! And i reckon the rights to broadcast Wimbledon is way less than World Cup.
NRL – please leave it to 9 where all the bogans on and off the screen gather for their TV.
AFL – as is just need the AFL to insist 7 have it live and/or HD otherwise no go
Tennis – Definitely one for Ten or SBS
When Conroy relaxes the rules 1 day after the election you can be sure Foxtel will have better access for most sport and FTA will have to “live” with the 500 million gift in cancelled fees from earlier this year (funny how Prime can’t afford to upgrade equipment even after this gift)
@ dan – i agree with that Nine do a much better job with the AFL & Seven are just terrible.
Nine are better off with AFL… they did a much better job with it than 7 have, since they got it back, it’s pretty disgraceful coverage by 7.. it’s not 1980 anymore… at least when 9 had it they did a great job… then when 7 swiped it again.. it became 1980’s football coverage all over again.. so yeah im on side with 9 on this one..