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Time running out for Nine affiliate deal

Will Nine strike a deal for regional SA, WA, Tasmania, Mildura and Griffith before Friday?

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In a matter of days viewers in regional South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Mildura and Griffith could be without Nine programmes unless a last minute deal can be reached.

New affiliate arrangements between Nine and Southern Cross, TEN and WIN begin on Friday.

TV guides already spell the bad news.

A note to viewers in the Sunday Tasmanian says: “Due to pending licensing agreements broadcast schedules for Nine, 9GO and 9GEM were unavailable at time of print. These channels are available for viewing on 9now.com.au.”

TDT boss Stephen Giles confirmed negotiations were in progress but declined to say whether TDT screens would be blank from midnight on Thursday.

The sticking points between parties remain price and the inclusion of clauses for streaming.

In WA and Mildura, WIN has joint-venture arrangements with Prime Media and in Tasmania WIN has a partnership with Southern Cross.

WIN and Nine are also negotiating for large areas of SA, including Mount Gambier and the Riverland, where WIN has affiliate agreements with all three metro broadcasters.

Mediaweek editor James Manning said Nine could afford to be off-air but only briefly.

“It would be bad for their brand and there would be feedback from Tasmania which would damage the brand elsewhere and make them look like they didn’t care about their audience,” he said.

A spokesperson for Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said the Government was encouraging a resolution but had no power to force an agreement.

A spokesperson for Nine said, “We are hopeful of an agreement, but if it does not happen in time for the switch-over we will have alternate arrangements.”

Source: The Mercury, Australian Financial Review

13 Responses

  1. A deal will be done. especially now in the days of the Internet and streaming and with the NBN still not completed for the foreseeable future affiliation agreements still have value for both parties. It will be last minute but a deal will be certainly done they would be insane to allow it to drag on for longer than necearry they can bicker about the money and finer details later as they always do.

  2. Most people that I talk to are not really aware of the possibility of not seeing “Love Child’ ” The Voice” etc they all think nothing has changed.
    I even rang Nine in Sydney and a person in programming told me nothing was changing in Tasmania.
    If the staff are not aware what hope have the luckless viewers got !

  3. I suspect the vast majority of regional viewers which this whole “swap-over” affects, have no idea what’s about to happen. The ads being run on both our regional stations really don’t make a lot of sense unless you’re aware of what’s happening. There’ll be uproar come Fri when people can’t find their favourite 9 & 10 programs.

    1. Tend to agree. Could have made a generic explanation-type-announcement promos rather than the song-and-dance style that Nine (SCA) has. But, it really is as simple as pressing 5 instead of 8, or 8 instead of 5. Or check the EPG.
      Then, SCA is not helping by still running promos for The Living Room over the weekend, when it will actually be next seen on WIN.

    2. ‘There’ll be uproar come Fri when people can’t find their favourite 9 & 10 programs.’
      Exactly – WIN gets 10 Programming on 1 Jul at midnight, while SC gets Nine Programming during the same time. In Regional WA, SA, TAS, Griffith and Mildura Channel 5 will be switched off from 1 July if they still negotiate the deal. This was not good news at all for these viewers in the affected areas.

    3. I had a chat to a few people over the weekend about the swapover, no one outside me knew what exactly was happening and most of the responses I received aren’t able to be reprinted!!

  4. The quote that I love ends with: “make them look like they didn’t care about their audience,”
    Most viewers were unaware networks did care about their audience? What with late start times and yanking shows or moving them for example.

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