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Nine, WIN talks reach “stalemate.”

With just over a week remaining on their existing deal, talks break down between Nine and WIN.

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Negotiations between Nine and WIN over retransmission fees have broken down with just over a week remaining on their existing deal.

News Corp reports negotiations between WIN’s billionaire owner Bruce Gordon and Nine’s newly-installed CEO Hugh Marks at WIN’s Wollongong headquarters hit “a stalemate.”

It reports:

WIN and Nine remain miles apart on price in the talks. WIN is not budging on its offer to continue paying 39 per cent of its advertising revenues to Nine. But Nine had been demanding 55 per cent of WIN’s ad revenues.

Sources close to Nine say it has now cut its demand to 49 per cent of WIN’s ad revenues for two years: a figure WIN ­rejected.

Nine sources say the network has since offered a compromise proposal of a six-month extension at 49 per cent, also rejected, meaning no pre-Christmas solution.

If WIN goes black regional cricket coverage could be screened on SBS2 from January 1st to avoid Nine breaching its obligations to Cricket Australia. The Australian reports news and current affairs would stream via 9jump-in.

Meanwhile Fairfax reports a $1.8b merger and a six month extension was also discussed, ahead of likely media rules being addressed.

Nine argues that WIN only contributes 10 per cent of the cost of Nine’s content  bill, which is worth about 60 per cent of Nine’s revenue, whereas it estimates WIN’s content bill is less than 50 per cent of its own revenue. But WIN points to declining audiences and argues it should pay reduced affiliate fees.

20 Responses

  1. Thanks David for keeping us all informed on this important decision, especially here in Tas where WIN and SCN both own TDT which is the Ten network outlet in Tas.

  2. Won’t broadcasting cricket on SBS2 still breach rights obligations as cricket is a mainstream sport that has to be broadcast on a primary channel under the anti siphoning code?

    1. SBS2 broadcast the A-league every Friday afternoon. Not allowed to have the summer ofcricket shown in multichannel . Don’t forget that there will be ODI and T20I match shown on a Friday .

    2. It’s a bit more complex than that. Under the anti-siphoning rules it’s only the rights-holder (9) that has to broadcast it on the primary channel – and in the past the government has let that rule slide a bit to so that things get broadcast at all. (Remember, it’s perfectly ok for a broadcaster to buy the FTA rights to an event on the list and then not show it…). The rights-holder is also free to offer it to other broadcasters (e.g. SBS), who then aren’t bound by the same rules (because the rules apply to the rights-holder).

      The only real sticking point would be if 9’s agreement with CA specified it must be broadcast, and on the primary channel. But neither 9 nor CA have publicly said that’s a problem, so either it doesn’t or CA don’t care as long as it’s broadcast.

    3. 9 already show any cricket at 6pm on a multichannel to allow News to be shown on the main channel, so wouldn’t that breach it? Surely now that we have a completely digital set up we don’t need this rule anyway?

  3. Nine is owned by merchant bankers who just want dollars. With WINs reach they have a good opportunity to start Australia’s 4th commercial network. Nine is just been greedy it would seem. As for the cricket Ten should have won the rights to it.

  4. Hard to feel sorry for the regional networks. They’ve cut local news and production to bar minimum and the quality is a joke. They have almost no ties to communities anymore. They’ve completely missed the whole digital revolution with almost no presence in online digital and social. They’ve failed to negotiate a seat at the table to be able to work with networks to share revenue from advertising in streaming. They’ve been left behind with catch up apps.
    SC Ten does not have a single newsroom or newscast for broadcasting Ten to 1 in 3 Australians. And Win the self proclaimed largest to network in Australia does not even have a website for WIN News. It’s a joke. The sooner these tv stations are run by the networks the better.

    1. As a regional viewer all we watch is win tv .if it wasn’t for win television we would ha no local news content whatsoever . We have but one newspaper in our region and Fairfax has cut costs to its regional mastheads where the news content in non existent in our local Fairfax paper the paper isn’t worth buying any more there are no journalists left in regional print media . Win news at least does provide local news .if nine buys win local news will be thirst to go ,nine needs win national audience.

  5. 9’s “offer” of a 6 month deal… fits nicely into the hands of then jumping ship to dump WIN and go with SCA regional TV… giving 9 access to a regional tv network and a radio network to push its news interests… leaving WIN no option but to go with TEN….. its been 9’s plan all along… there wont be a deal… but WIN wont go black…. test pattersns arent black … lol

  6. Nine are just trying to get what they can, and drive down the value of WIN and hence Southern Cross before they buy one of them.

    Regional networks are just transmitters for the capital city shows. Even their mandated local Newses are being assembled in other parts of the country. They have no barging power except for taking their bat and ball and going home and leaving consumers using the net. In the age of the internet they are as dead as a dodo.

    1. But remember they have a huge audience that nine needs to on sell its national advertisers advertising packages without WIN nine is stuffed . Nine needs WiN revenue to survive as for thecricket on SBS 2 the audience will half look at what happened to th A league when SBS moved it from th main channel to SBS 2 the the A league lost half its audience .no one watches SBS.certainly not th size audience that win can deliver.

  7. Does WIN think they can really survive without 9 programming? Don’t they have more to lose than 9? Maybe they can broadcast channel 31 content. They will get better ratings than 24/7 alive and cooking.

    1. WIN is quite big enough to go it alone, but making its own content arrangements would expose it to the full cost of such, which is something WIN is clearly trying to avoid in its refusal to budge with the negotiations with 9.

  8. Shareholders in regional TV networks can blame the government’s failure to drop the 75% reach rule for the fact that they own a rapidly diminishing asset thanks to the ability of the cap city networks to live stream all their channels.

    1. Most people wouldn’t even know how to stream refuse to watch tv on a tablet .nothing beats a big screen to to watch live tv on . The reach rule won’t make a difference to regional viewers.

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