Nine Entertainment, Australia’s largest media conglomerate, has just been named the exclusive Australian broadcaster of the Summer Olympic Games from Paris 2024 to Brisbane in 2032.
The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics as well as the 2030 Winter Olympics are also included in the agreement. The Australian broadcast rights for the Paralympic Games are not included in the Nine deal and a separate bidding process is underway for the Paris Games in 2024. (The Guardian)
The broadcasting deal is reportedly worth $305 million AUD ($213.5 million USD). (The Guardian)
Domestic viewers will have access to most of the Games’ competitions live and free of charge on Channel Nine, nine.come.au and 9Now, with additional content available on a subscription basis.
Swimming Australia CEO Eugénie Buckley said of the announcement, “Nine has been home to moments in the pool that have inspired generations of Australians and their coverage has undoubtedly helped solidify swimming’s position as our country’s most popular Olympic sport,” Buckley said.
“With Nine also holding the rights to the next few World Aquatics Championships we now have a wonderful opportunity to build the profile and momentum around this world beating Australian Dolphins team, not only through to Paris but in the cycles beyond.
“The green and gold decade ahead to Brisbane 2032 provides a significant platform for swimming and we look forward to continuing our collaborative relationship with Nine to ensure we both leverage it appropriately for the benefit of Australian sports fans.”
According to Sports Pro Media, the Nine deal sees the Olympics switch from long-time Australian broadcaster Seven, which reportedly bid between AUS$230 million and AUS$250 million (US$161 million and US$175 million). Neither network was prepared to pay the AUS$400 million (US$279 million) that the IOC was said to be looking for. (Sports Pro Media)
The Olympics have historically been a losing proposition for Australian networks. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the Tokyo 2020 Games saw Seven lose AUS$50 million (US$34.9 million) with production costs hitting around AUS$150 million (US$105 million). (Sports Pro Media)
So far the best swimming production I have watched was by Amazon Prime. Based on experience, I do not think channel Nine can match that.
Nine needs to be aware that they won’t succeed with just covering the Olympics.
They need to help expand the coverage of the critical Olympic sports outside of just the Games themselves and the lead in to them, year round support of the sports is critical. The AOC, ASC and the plethora of organisations underneath do have big plans for the growth of Olympic sports into Brisbane, and Nine has a generational opportunity to make these sports more than just one-in-four-year events. Giving more coverage, investing in more events and deep insights, interviews, documentaries are all critical to expanding stable public interest in these sports. There is no reason why individual time focused sports cannot have popularity rivaling team… Read more »
I hope Nine gives viewers the (paid) option of watching the Olympics ad-free and without the broadcast switching back and forth between, for example, the swimming and the athletics. I want to be able to watch all the swimming heats, finals, and medal ceremonies in their entirety and sans interruption.
In America, we had two versions in Tokyo and Beijing: Watch the regular NBC pop around coverage, and then there was an OTT platform where you could watch everything live with the international feed commentary and no weird cutaways (there were still ads, but at natural points, where play was stopped anyway).
Was that now how it was in Australia?
From memory we had a similar thing. If you watched the TV then it had all of the fluff but if you watched the livestream it was just a constant stream. Although I might be getting it mixed up with Worlds last year…
Foxtel offered Australian viewers a comprehensive coverage of the Olympics some years ago. I forget which Olympics it was. But to the best of my knowledge, there hasn’t been any since.
it was the olympics. if you wanted the international stream with nicole livingstone, then you had to go to the 7+ app/website and select that specific stream. if you go anywhere else on 7+, or watch it on tv, you get the australian stream.
in budapest channel 9 carried the fina stream with no ads. no australian commentary was available. in melbourne they carried an australian stream, with a vpn being required to watch the fina stream live
7+ app was atrocious though…
I wonder who will commentate.
Surely they can beat Seven in that department.
I have my doubts. They have their favourite old white male commentators who love themselves too much and don’t know anything usually heading the commentary.
That’s what I’ve been wondering. Nine’s going to be hard-pressed to find a better commentator than Basil Zempilas. If I had my way it would be him and Hackett.
Thorpe, Livingstone and Hackett trio can’t be beaten.
Wow, that’s nearly $50 million per person in Australia that can even count to nine.
smh they could have given everyone on earth a million dollars and had $298m left over
At least every one in Australia can point out where the USA and France are on a world map. Pretty sure that doesn’t apply vice versa.
Is this an American implying that another country is less educated than them? Lol