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Rumour: Nine swoops on Australian Open?

Is Seven's 40 year stranglehold on the Australian Open in danger of being prised free by Nine?

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Speculation today that Nine may have usurped the Australian Open rights from Seven…

The current agreement between Tennis Australia and Seven ends after next year’s event.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports Seven had an exclusive negotiating period that ended in March, and bids were then opened up to other competitors with a mid-April deadline.

The current deal with Seven, which includes exclusive digital rights, is worth $35 million a year. At the time, industry observers estimated the rights could have achieved $50 million a year if it was opened up to rival networks.

It’s believed Nine’s latest offer was closer to $60 million.

If Nine were to nab the Australian Open it would end Seven’s 40 year broadcast of the event, perfectly placed before the return of the annual ratings season. Nine is also in negotiations with Cricket Australia for its summer broadcasting.

Update: Nine secures Australian Open from 2020

22 Responses

  1. I haven’t watched Aust.tennis open for a number of years. 7 have turned it into an add fest for MKR etc..(they should look after there sponsors better)
    Very tired of Bruce & other commentators. This also is the same with AFL – why do Fox have to have ch 7 broadcast of main games? there’s no escape.

    2. I’ve mainly been watching online on the dedicated world feed channels 7 provided on their app so you get whatever commentators are selected for that court. Very refreshing. I had my gripes with 7’s coverage but overall it was a decent product.

  2. 3AW radio’s TV guru (and Telstra voice over) Jane Holmes said it’ll be announced this afternoon. News Corp also confirming the deal. Can’t see anything ‘official’ from TA or Nine yet.

    But wow, how will Seven react / deal with this? Cricket only option now.

  3. This is a good thing. Seven have had the stranglehold for far too long. They need someone new and fresh to make it interesting again.

    Less d grade fashion advice, more sport. Same goes for the Cup Carnival. Focus on the sport and not the marquees.

  4. I really hope this happens. 7’s coverage has been terrible for years, including playing too many ads after every set so that the first game of the next set is completely missed, missing big parts of important games while they show interviews or promotions, the constant annoying self-promotion such as zooming in on 7 personalities in the crowd, and only showing limited games in HD.

      3. Nine have a good record with showing every ball of the cricket, and it will be interesting to see if they do a better job than in the past with The Masters. Seven on the other hand responded to the shortening of the time between points in tennis, allowing more ads per hour, by skipping even more of the tennis to show Seven promos and trivia from around the tournament.

  5. Good news: No more annoying “MKR Starts After the Tennis”

    Bad News: The ads advertising that “The Block or Married at First Sight Starts After the Tennis” will be equally annoying.

  6. Wouldn’t that clash with the cricket? Assuming they are still airing it. They are on at the same time. But I would love someone else to stick it to 7 & take their precious tennis off them. How about 10 now that CBS owns them they will have big pockets now.

    3. Wouldn’t clash with most of the tests (mostly the Adelaide Day/Night test) or the ODIs & T20 after the Australian Open. And during the 2nd week of the tennis you could show cricket during the day and the night matches from the Tennis. And of course there are secondary channels, streaming and onselling games to Foxtel to get around it. Nine put in a bid for the tennis and Seven put in a bid for the cricket. This serves many purposes, to drive up what a competitor has to pay, to hedge in case you lose the one you want, and to put pressure on sports organisations by demonstrating you have other options. If the rumours are true Nine put in a more serious bid for the Tennis, than Seven did for the cricket. Bids close April 12.

  7. To whomever wins the rights – please, every match in the summer series in HD. I’ve paid for the additional online access for the last two years and if a match was broadcast in SD on TV, it was SD online. There’s no excuse for this.

  8. Wow, what an end of an era if true! I really hope not, Seven have done such a great job over 40 years, would be a shame to potentially overhauling the coverage. It would also be very odd, given it’s not as expensive to acquire as AFL / NRL and Seven had exclusive first bids option. So treading very carefully.

    But this possibly means Nine’s era of cricket is all but over. Maybe this means Seven might have a big crack at cricket now, with or without Ten?

    If true, at least Seven will get to have a massive farewell next summer.

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