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Report: Australian Open moves to February 8

Host broadcaster reports AO will be held across first 2 weeks of ratings -let the scheduling headaches begin.

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Nine News has reported the Australian Open is confirmed to commence on Monday February 8 2021.

That shifts the event into the official ratings season -which will create havoc for TV networks.

The Open normally ends a week before the start of ratings and serves as a promotional platform for its broadcaster, Nine, ahead of Married at First Sight.

But the event screening in ratings will disrupt Nine’s plans -as well as Seven and 10 who had planned on Holey Moley and The Amazing Race Australia, respectively.

For Nine having the event in ratings at face value looks like a win -but it is also dependent on whether international tennis players make the trip to Australia, or decide to skip the event. All international players will have to enter quarantine for 14 days, after arriving on chartered flights between January 15 – 17. But they will also have special conditions to enable them to leave quarantine for 5 hrs per day for training, treatment & gym, and must undergo 5 COVID tests.

It isn’t yet clear if the AO could run in part on a multichannel with MAFS on the primary channel -but having the finals in ratings is clearly a good problem to have.

2021 ratings survey begins on Sunday February 7.

26 Responses

  2. I think the best option would be if the Australian Open is simultaneously shown on Nine and 9Gem, for the duration of the fourteen days on TV! Married At First can go on 9Go!, as it doesn’t matter if the program is in standard definition.

    David, could you please tell me why the Australian Open is only shown on one channel, by the second week of the Open?

  4. So I assume now Cricket Australia will be happy to go to Seven and renegotiate their contract… they’ll now want an increase because the Big Bash has been handed clean air!

  6. Ultimately “ratings season” is an artificial concept anyway which Australian TV persists with. Then again schedules are somewhat of an artificial concept too.

    A no brained for Nine – just push the schedule back two weeks – even in a non-pandemic affected year there is enough slack to do that. 10 will do their own thing and counter programming is their best option. Seven probably need to push back but Holey Morley is flopping where ever they launch it, though if they keep it to an hour it could do business at 7pm versus the Austin Open.

  7. Delayed AO2021 will start on 8 Feb and conclude on 21 Feb. Some sporting events will overlap tennis including Rugby Union and NRL. Round 1 of the revamped Super Rugby season kicks off on the 19 Feb when W Force play Brumbies. I can’t see Super Rugby be shunted to 9Go when tennis is on.

  9. If Ten wants TAR Australia to have good ratings, I’d hold it off until after the Australian Open is completed. Everybody will be watching the tennis and not Reality TV!

    1. Nah 10 should totally stick to schedule. I’m a celeb did well against tennis, and Survivor did well against MAFS which will follow the tennis anyway. The Amazing Race will probably benefit not launching at the same time as MAFS and be an alternative to Tennis.

        1. Do you mean Celeb was miles behind Tennis? I assume that’s what you mean, as its not very clear what you’re comparing. If that’s the case you need to go back and check, Celeb beat the tennis several times, and was less than 150k behind on a couple of occasions. Celeb was trashed on a couple of nights sure, but it also won at least 3 of the 10 they went head to head.

          1. I’m A Celebrity managed to outrate the BBL (I think each time) and 10 made a song and dance about it, 10 even beat Seven in shares some nights.

            But not once the Australian Open started, Nine won every single night by a landslide margin.

          2. Maybe for the night in shares but I’m a celeb rated higher than the tennis 3 times in its first week.

  11. I see all positives for 9, families are much more likely to watch the tennis on a school night than during the holidays. They can just delay MAFS by a few weeks, there are always some dead weeks later on in the year where they are thin on content. And they haven’t really announced a replacement for The Voice, beauty and the geek would not fill that many hours. solves lots of problems.

    7 is in a difficult position, do they hold their ammunition? they could put holey moley Sun 7:00 where there usually isnt much going on in the tennis.

    1. Its negatives for the AO organisers though. They hold the event during school holidays because it means more tickets sold on site and therefore more revenue.

        1. Yeah be interesting, as lower capacity likely means the usual allocation for Australians going. As in the fans that generally come from overseas won’t be this year, so that allocation won’t be there. That may also inspire some to go as well knowing that all those “super fans” won’t be there either.

  12. 10’s going to be unhappy if they continue with the planned shorter I’m A Celeb season then…it now means either putting Amazing Race up against AO or adding another couple of weeks of radio silence to next year’s schedule.

    1. Lucky for 10 maybe that I’m a celebrity will already be filmed, can they just bump it’s start date back two weeks to run into the start of tennis? Then push everything else back around the tennis as well?

    2. I wouldn’t assume tennis will be any stronger competition than MAFS for the amazing race. TAR might be better off not competing with other reality shows.

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