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Nine signs affiliation agreement with Southern Cross

Breaking News: Nine signs 5 year deal with Southern Cross, bringing an end to 27 years with WIN.

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UPDATE: Nine, Southern Cross,TEN, WIN: affiliate changes

Nine and Southern Cross have announced a 5 year affiliation agreement, ending a long-term partnership with WIN Television.

The deal from July 1 sees Southern Cross broadcast Nine content into its markets in Queensland, Southern NSW and Victoria.

Nine has secured a fee of 50% of SCA’s TV revenue -Nine currently received 39% of WIN TV revenue, but could not secure a higher deal from WIN.

The deal sees the end of a 27 year affiliation between the two broadcasters from June 30, following a tenuous relationship of late. Yesterday WIN lost a courtcase with Nine over streaming rights into its markets. Both extended their current affiliation deal until the end of June, after failing to agree to new tersm.

Nine CEO Hugh Marks told a senate committee Nine was not interested in buying a regional broadcaster.

Marks and Southern Cross CEO Grant Blackley are close, together they owned talent management agency RGM Artists.

WIN has previously been reported as having talks with TEN management about a new affiliation deal. Billionaire mogul Bruce Gordon owns around 15% of both Nine and TEN.

The release is as follows:

Nine Entertainment Co. (Nine) (ASX:NEC) and Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) (ASX: SXL) have today announced the signing of a new regional television affiliation agreement. The five year agreement will see SCA broadcast Nine’s metropolitan free-to-air television content into regional Queensland, Southern NSW and regional Victoria from 1 July 2016.

Under this landmark agreement, the SCA channels will carry Nine’s branding and broadcast its premium Australian and international content including The Voice and The Block, as well as all NRL and Cricket broadcasts, providing a seamless Nine brand across metropolitan and major regional markets.

SCA will pay Nine an affiliation fee of 50 per cent of its television revenue.

As part of the new affiliation deal, Nine and SCA have agreed to work together on a number of opportunities to mutually grow their businesses.

The agreement provides for a substantial expansion of news services broadcast by SCA. Nine’s market leading News bulletins featuring international, national and locally produced news will be broadcast to regional markets across Queensland, Southern NSW and Victoria.

As part of the arrangements, SCA will provide national sales services for Nine’s NBN channel in Northern NSW and NTD9 in Darwin. This will provide advertisers with a centralised port of call for their regional advertising on Nine’s content across the entire Eastern seaboard.

Hugh Marks, CEO of NEC said “This is a great outcome for Nine and SCA. We are confident that, together, we will offer a premium viewing experience for audiences and a best in class platform for advertisers.”

Welcoming the agreement, Grant Blackley CEO of SCA said “I’m excited SCA is entering into this landmark long term agreement with Nine, a media company which has so successfully informed and entertained Australian audiences for many decades.”

87 Responses

  1. Love to see what Bruce’s play will be .. Maybe buy up unique content for win and then stream it into Sydney aka rupert many years ago. Great deal for southern cross but win could get benefit out of ten/Foxtel

  2. Wow southern cross is the biggest loser here ,why would they want to join nine . Nine has had its worst ratings year to date every show has bombed or performed below expectations with the scandals going on with 60mins and their kidnapping attempts Reno rumble nosediving in the ratings ,they are way behind seven in the ratings . WIN TV will do a deal with ten, Bruce Gordon is a smart operator , FTA TV is losing viewers by the truck load with steaming the Internet pay TV not many viewers left for FTA TV .

    1. I agree. This is bad for SCA. Their days are numbered. In 5 years 9 will chew them up and spit them out. No one will want to buy them. WIN will chart a much more sustainable future with 10.

  3. I think SCA should have stuck to running their national Triple M and Hit Network radio stations and not move to running TV.
    Anyway, I don’t see why Nine decided to go to SCA and not broadcast their NBN into the WIN markets? If TEN don’t act soon then no regional viewers will be seeing TEN content

  4. I think longer term a TEN/WIN combo will be the winner here. As a country viewer the WIN brand is much stronger than Southern Cross as WIN has always done Local News and more involved with local communities. The once dominant Nine is struggling in this fragmented market whilst nimble TEN are starting to find its feet again slowly. Bruce Gordon is no pushover and will make a TEN/WIN work. Interesting times.

    1. I agree with you WIN is the stronger local brand they actual have half local news in most markets souther cross has no local content in any regional market it has only ever been a relay station for ten programming

  5. I’m guessing that nothing will change in Tasmania, Griffith and SE South Australia – WIN will still have Nine programming. And WIN Griffith and SE SA will still have their Seven and Ten channels, you’d think.

  6. I’m not fussed about who is aligned to who, what channels will they be on, etc etc. I’d just like to know that the programs I watch now will still be there come July1st.

    1. Bruce knew six months ago if not longer that’s why he bought more shares in Ten through another company .the WIN brand is far stronger in regional Australia .. In this day and age you can’t pay the ridiculous fees nine was demanding from WIN .FTA TV is jsut not profitable like it was ten twenty years ago , now we have streaming pay to Internet . Southern Cross will live to regret their decision in the long run. They are basically a radio company.

  7. can someone help clarify things for me a bit; parts of regional queensland and other regionals places around have WinLocalNews, so when this new deal comes into place what will happen to winlocalnews

    1. Nothing. It will probably be on at 6pm in place of Family Feud, which may be on One for those who want to watch it. No one is buying anyone. They are simply swapping program feeds.

      1. so once the new deal comes into place- winlocalnews in regional parts will move to 10 and the localnews in regional parts will be southcross- is that it Jason.

        so will be correct in assuming the advertising will change as well.
        it just seems a bit of confusion at first

    2. It will still be WIN local news . The WIN brand hasn’t gone any where , the southern cross brand will disappear and replaced with nine branding . For WIN it will be the same only thing will be Ten dosent have all the digital channels nine has so does that mean all the digital channels will disappear from win territory .

  8. I’m confused haha
    So does that mean WIN with Nine content will now be branded as Nine owned by Southern Cross with Nine content? Will 8, 82,83,84,80 change to 9,90 etc?
    And
    SC10 with TEN content will still be SC10 with TEN content?

    1. No, to all of that. It’s so simply. What’s on WIN now (Nine programs) will be seen on the channels that now carry TEN programs. What’s on the TEN regional channels will now carry Nine programs. No channel numbers will change. This is presuming that WIN does a deal with TEN.

        1. Probably still WIN News Cairns, just on another channel – the channel you currently watch TEN on. It’s a local program (one of those rare things these days) so it will still be called what it is now.

  9. Some questions I have about this….

    How can they do this when reach rules haven’t gone through yet (or have they) or is this not relevant ?

    I’m in regional Qld and get Win with 9 content and Ten with Ten content owned by SC. What will happen with Ch 10 in regional Qld ?

    Also does this mean we should see SC10 sooner now ?

    Vinny.

    1. It’s irrelevant. TEN programs will switch to the current WIN Network (presumably) and Nine programs will switch from WIN Network to the current regional TEN Network stations. No one is buying anyone. It’s just a program supply rearrangement.
      What’s now on the TEN stations in regional will now be seen on the WIN stations.

  10. Marks and Blackley back in bed together again. “This will provide advertisers with a centralised port of call for their regional advertising on Nine’s content across the entire Eastern seaboard”. Odd statement. They already have that thru WIN.
    50% of revenue seems steep, but if you don’t produce any local content and are just a relay network and not your own identity, with local IDs having gone long ago, it may seem OK.
    Can’t see Bruce Gordon dropping his WIN brand, which was what Nine wanted. Nor can we see WIN advertising removed from WIN Stadium when SCNine carries the NRL.

    1. 4.30 Friday press releases are usually reserved for bad news. I don’t get Why would 9 or SCA hope to sweep this under the carpet on a Friday afternoon? It’s a good news story as far as they are concerned?

  11. “The agreement provides for a substantial expansion of news services broadcast by SCA. Nine’s market leading News bulletins featuring international, national and locally produced news will be broadcast to regional markets across Queensland, Southern NSW and Victoria”.
    WIN already broadcasts all Nine News bulletins in Qld, Sthn NSW and Vic. SCTEN has no local news bulletins. Guessing the new WIN will dump Family Feud to air local news at 6pm in most markets.

      1. That is correct that’s how I have read it too it won’t be like prime seven just be nine .southern cross name will disappear ,it makes no difference to viewers only WINTV provides local news ,half hour bulletins . prime and southern cross have only ever been relay stations with no local content .

    1. I’m guessing its all down to the subtle difference between SC Ten and SC TV, which is why this agreement makes no mention of anything outside of Vic/NSW/Qld. I guess time will make everything clearer.

    1. Probably no change as WIN has the commercial monopoly and already relays all 3 city networks to its regional SA markets.

      Ditto for Southern Cross in Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill.

    1. I would expect WIN keeps 9 in Tasmania while SCA keeps 7 and both share Ten 50/50.

      Similar probably in regional WA where WIN has 9 and Prime/GWN has 7 and both share local Ten. I expect nothing will change there.

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