IOC confirms Nine as Olympic broadcaster to 2032
Nine's IOC deal includes Paris, Milan, Los Angeles and Brisbane Olympic Games.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News, Olympics, Top Stories
The International Olympic Committee has formally confirmed Nine Entertainment Co. as the exclusive free and subscription rights to the Summer and Winter Olympics from 2024-2032.
This follows speculative reports Nine offered more than $300 million for the Australian rights, but below the $400 million the IOC sought.
Nine will broadcast the Olympic Games Paris in July 2024, and follow with next five Olympic Games, including Milan (2026), Los Angeles (2028), the yet to be announced 2030 Winter Games, and the all-important Olympic Games in Brisbane in 2032.
Games action will span across 9Now, Stan, the 9Network, and its radio, print and digital platforms.
IOC President, Thomas Bach, said: “Australia is a great sporting nation with a long Olympic history which will be taken to new heights with the hosting of the Olympic Games Brisbane 2032. Our new partnership with Nine will ensure Olympic fans across Australia have unparalleled coverage of the Olympic Games on their platform of choice.”
Mike Sneesby, CEO of Nine, said: “This partnership with the IOC is an important part of Nine’s strategy as we continue to define Australian broadcast and streaming television. We’re delighted to be bringing the Olympics Games to Australian audiences, whenever and however they choose from Paris 2024 to Brisbane in 2032.”
“These rights complement our recently renewed partnerships with the NRL and Tennis Australia at a time when live sport continues to demonstrate its ability to drive strong growth in streaming audiences and strength in free-to-air TV consumption. Importantly, this deal enables Nine to make the Olympic Games accessible to all Australia, across more platforms than ever before.”
“For our audiences, advertisers and teams across Australia, today’s announcement brings the Olympic Games home to Nine, and directly reflects our purpose – Australia Belongs Here.”
Nine’s Chief Sales Officer, Michael Stephenson, said: “The Olympic Games is a marketing platform for brands with unrivalled scale. Over the next 10 years we have the opportunity to build long term strategic plans with our partners and sponsors to grow their brands and build their business. Everything is building towards an Aussie Olympics in Brisbane in 2032.”
“As the exclusive media network of the most iconic and prestigious sporting event on the calendar, Nine can offer our commercial partners marketing opportunities at scale in an unrivalled Total TV, Total Audio and Total Publishing environment – all delivered in an environment of stories, experiences and performances from the very best athletes and teams in the world.”
Michael Healy, Nine’s Director of Television, said: “From our unbeatable network of assets, to the world-class class coverage delivered by the country’s best presenters, commentators and experts, Nine is undeniably the true home of the Olympic Games. Across the breadth of our business, including our affiliate partners, we reach almost 98 percent of Australians, and are incredibly proud to be able to inspire a new generation of fans with a decade of Olympic Games coverage. Building on our leading news, sports and entertainment brands, we are committed to delivering the very best viewing experience for our audiences that culminates in the ultimate celebration on home soil in 2032.”
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27 Responses
With any luck Stefanovic will be out to pasture before Brissie in 2032. He was dire when Nine last had the Olympics in 2012.
Nine/Stan is better than Seven/Foxtel, right? I’d rather to watch Stan than Foxtel only because of the costs.
Sad. We have probably seen the last Olympics ever with Bruce. Let’s hope he does some radio for it, if radio is still around…!
Not the greatest news but just as i suspected, Stan is involved. They’ve already ruined the tennis and now it will most likely happen to the Olympics. My guess is the majority of the broadcasts are going to be behind a paywall (that is if Stan even exists in 10 years from now). TV landscapes change so quickly. Nine are just bad sports broadcasters despite what they boast. I’ll give them a chance but i can just tell its not going to be what we’ve had from Seven in the past few Olympics and Commonwealth Games where they’ve offered live and free feeds of all sports to everyone. Stan will most likely take the majority of the sport. We all know it but i’ll give them a chance to prove themselves in Paris. Not holding my breath though.
How have they ruined the tennis? I’d argue it’s the opposite, as Stan provides better coverage than ever before. I’m excited about finally being able to watch the Olympics in 4k and don’t mind paying $31 to do so. There’s always going to be a free option on 9Now and 9’s FTA channels.
“hey’ve already ruined the tennis and now it will most likely happen to the Olympics. ”
“Nine are just bad sports broadcasters despite what they boast. ”
Do you forget the traditional complains about scheduling, commentary and general quality at every olympics broadcast since forever?? It always a no win situation.
As long as there is a ad-free offering, streaming of every event live and it’s broadcast in HD (or above). It’s basically a shared feed anyway. Bonus points for the ability to turn off / change commentary
Not sure how they’ve ruined the Tennis. 9 Now had all the other courts in full 50p. At least on their streaming services their picture quality is far superior than 7 or 10. Sounds like you’re already poo pooing the coverage way before it begins, which is very odd!
Ad free (and possibly 4K) Olympics on Stan. Bring it on. 👍
Nine have turned into Seven, circa mid 2000s to 2010s! Biggest shows (Desperate Housewives / Lost / Prison Break and MKR > Married / Block), biggest sports (Olympics and Australian Open) and as we saw in 2019 and 2020 the biggest network especially with younger viewers. Both organisations said a few years back they’d “make decisions that were economically sensible” but it seems Nine have the power (audacity, success and money) to ‘get the best’ regardless of successful or not and any losses. One truly wonders where this leaves Seven now, let alone 10…
They just have to keep Eddie away now and it’ll be a hit!
and that annoying voice over announcer with that deep voice that Nine has been using for the past 30 years.
From what I can tell, it seems to be a good deal at this stage. I think other networks wanted to focus on cricket, AFL and other sports or leagues in the short-term, which is a safer return on investment. 2032 is quite a long-term outlook for television, but it’s a risk that could receive big gains. I think to get the Brisbane Olympics is quite good. I find that there’s a similar hype and excitement to what it was like before the Sydney Olympics, even well in advance and across the nation. In other words, it could be a very big event.
Now they really are bringing viewers the whole wide world of sports with the Olympics, tennis grand slams, Ashes, NRL, union and netball. Seven and News Corp will be livid
Not sure about livid. Most of the Games in the deal are bad time zones for Oz live viewing and remember seven had written down the value of the Olympics to almost zero prior to Tokyo. Brisbane will be sensational; not sure about the rest. Seven lost money on this when they paid substantially less (almost half if media reports / speculation are to be believed). It seems the Olympic broadcast rights go in cycles mostly between nine and seven. Nine needs to gee up their morning (and now it seems evening as well) news and this will presumably help but I don’t think anyone would be livid about avoiding paying circa $300m for 17 days pa of sport every 2 years of bad time zone live tv.
Is there a reason they can’t run Paris in primetime? The LA games will have to be daytime but will no doubt push huge audiences to the game show/news. Plus they can use the games to build Stan subscribers and promote an ad free whole-of-games offering to paid customers can’t they?
As far as I know, at least some of the games must be FTA (mind you, ODI cricket is not FTA and it is also supposed to be). When seven tried to charge for some extra access on 7plus a while ago, it didn’t work (they also had some technical issues apparently). Historically, unfriendly time zone games have not worked anywhere near as well as say Tokyo. I think it was following Rio where seven wrote down the complete value of subsequent games only to be very pleasantly surprised with how well Tokyo did (plus 7+ received quite positive feedback and their usage was huge). As you say nine entertainment have Stan, radio and newspapers but SWM have most of that also (on a smaller scale) and still lost money (and that was when they paid $170m I think). Seven had final write of refusal I think so clearly the math just didn’t add up for them so I don’t they’re devastated.
just need to bring back the “Wild Winter Weekend” (unless Global Warming/climate change has ruined it) and we’re all set.
That’s going to hurt Seven.
The announcement means that if Bruce McAvaney is to do one or two more Olympic Games before retirement, he will have to become a commentator for the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) which provides the world feed. Bruce did it once before: he commentated swimming events at the 2012 London Olympics for OBS alongside Nicole Livingstone.
With Cricket, AFL and the Olympics, something had to give for seven. I had thought they’d give up the cricket rather than the Olympics. Spending more on the AFL, slightly less on the cricket, more than $200m for the Games was always going to be a bridge too far. Seven have done a decent job in reducing debt and building their ratings. But the financial markets probably wouldn’t support several hundreds of million for a loss leader.
Glad it’s FTA and subscription. I wonder what television will even look like in 9 years 🤯
Hopefully this announcement will spur our Premier and the federal government to sort out funding for The Gabba rebuild instead of the Queensland taxpayers footing the bill. Isn’t Nine supposed to be the Wide World of Sports so they like to be known according to their latest sports update an hour ago.
I guess it would be nice to have another network broadcast after Seven have had it for 10 years as Nine’s last broadcast was London 2012.
If Brisbane wasn’t a host city then the price paid would have been much lower as you’ll obviously pay more for a home games.
Generally network’s carry a loss when having the Olympics, but perhaps Nine might have the economies of scale across all TV, streaming and digital media/papers and make it worthwhile.
2032 will look a lot different in terms of viewing habits, on what kinds of devices, through new social media platforms etc.
By 2032 that’s going to look like a bargain bin price compared to other sporting rights. Well done 9.
what’s the urgency from the IOC to sell the Brisbane games so far in advance? Surely they’d get a much better price if they let inflation do its thing and wait for a better market at a later date.
7 seems to swing wildly between periods of slashing the cash and stinginess. Now is not the time to sell your sporting rights if you want a competitive bidding contest.
If 9 has the Winter Olympics in 2026, I am wondering if tentpoles like MAFS will go against the Games. If this happens, then the Olympics will have to be bumped to 9gem, with MAFS taking priority. After MAFS finishes, then coverage will move to main channel.
THe IOC hasn’t announced the hosts for the 2030 Olympic Games – it will be either in SLC or in Japan.
I actually thought Nine already got this but waiting for a formal announcement. Good on them. The Brisbane game will be huge. Can’t believe that we have to wait until 2032!
Nine had won the auction, but there are thousands of pages of contracts to sort out before the deal is finalised. Hosts usually lose on the @l^mp!cs, after security costs are factored. Seven never made any money broadcasting them either. Nine could a make a profit on Brisbane if they put a lot of coverage on Stan, and people are prepared to pay. When Foxtel tried that people weren’t preferred to pay and just made do with the FTA coverage.