Nine has shared its coverage plan for the 2023 Summer of Tennis, revealing its extensive content touchpoints across television, audio, print and digital.
Described as a “mega sports ecosystem,” Nine’s plans for the Australian Open and summer tennis coverage include new technology, new podcasts and new content to ensure Tennis on Nine is an “effective marketing platform.”
Mediaweek spoke to Nine’s director of sales – sport, Matt Granger, at Nine’s event, which saw the network’s plans for the upcoming tennis season unveiled.
Reflecting on the 2022 tennis coverage, which reached 12.5 million viewers, experienced year-on-year growth of 171%, and recorded the highest commercial shares in OzTam history, Granger said the tennis coverage gives Nine a strategic platform to start the year.
“It’s such an engaging audience platform for brands and partners – they’re probably the two critical things it provides.”
Owning exclusive tennis rights
Nine is the only place in the country where viewers can access all four Tennis Grand Slams, covering The French Open, Wimbledon, US Open, and Australian Open.
In 2018, Nine secured the exclusive rights to all world-class tennis played in Australia from 2019 to 2024.
The exclusive agreement costs Nine $60m per annum and saw the end of Tennis Australia’s relationship with Seven, which lasted more than 40 years.
Granger said the value of tennis has grown since acquiring the exclusive rights.
“I think what we’ve done with the tennis since we got it is actually developed and curated the way it’s delivered to Australians like never before.
“I don’t think the value is diminished in any way. In fact, it’s grown. It’s a valuable platform, both at a content and audience level and a platform for brands.”
Cutting-edge technology
A focal point of Nine’s upcoming coverage is the introduction of new technology, including artificial intelligence, mixed and extended reality, advances in Hawkeye keeping viewers immersed in a match, and FlyCam that cinematically captures all the colour and activity of the crowd over the Australian Open site.
Granger said, “The 3D and immersive elements is making sure we curate content to make it engaging, entertaining, and how we can find different ways to bring that to life, in the broadcast, but also across all our platforms socially, and across our digital platforms. As well as fun ways for brands to get involved and associated beyond just the tennis.”
Audiences and brands will also get to enjoy a host of new audio offerings with the addition of two podcasts on Nine’s digital audio arm, 9Podcasts.
Coming to podcast streaming platforms is six-part documentary series, Stories of the AO, and a WWOS AO podcast during the Open for fans to catch up on the latest tennis news.
“It’s similar to what we did with the State of Origin this year with the Stories of Origin series – it’s about us giving a more immersive audio content opportunity for clients and a digital audio content.
“It’s about having a complementary audio proposition that supplements what we’re doing across all channels.
“And during Radio Live, there’ll be updates each day as well, but the podcast is an extension opportunity for audiences to listen to and for brands to be part of,” Granger said.
Left to right: Todd Woodbridge, James Bracey, Anne Gruber, Brent Williams, Matt Granger
The next generation of tennis stars
The 2022 Australian Open women’s final, between Australian Ashleigh Barty and American Danielle Collins, attracted a peak audience of 4.261 million viewers with an average of 3.577 million.
The historic Australian Open win smashed TV ratings records, making it one of the most popular sporting moments of the last two decades.
With Ash Barty announcing her retirement earlier this year, the pressure is on to reach the same ratings.
Granger said despite Barty not returning for the 2023 tennis season, there will be a host of new talent taking the stage.
“The great thing about that was knowing that we got a massive bump from Barty, but even if you took Ash Barty’s numbers out of our audience, they were still 3-4% up on our forecast.”
See also: Nine reveals plans for a “mega sport ecosystem” for 2023 Summer of Tennis
During the event, tennis icon Samantha Smith discussed the power of Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios in bringing in a younger and less tennis-minded audience.
Granger echoed her excitement about the next generation of tennis stars.
“I think what we’re probably looking forward to most is how far can Nick really push it?
“But I think the richest part of it is who knows what story is coming? It’s an unscripted moment that we don’t know about. That makes it exciting, and that’s the power of live sport.”