2021 Australian Open TV ratings down after COVID date change

Viewers did not seem that interested in Novak Djokovic’s ninth Australian Open title, with his win the lowest rated in years.

Pushing back the Australian Open does not appear to have paid off for broadcaster Channel 9.

The annual tennis extravaganza is traditionally a launch pad for the network’s year of content, used to heavily promote upcoming prime time shows like Married At First Sight.

But with Australian Open figures down dramatically year on year, 31.8 per cent in the all important five city metro markets across the tournament, the question is whether or not there will be any ongoing impact to ratings and advertising revenue.

Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open men’s final against Daniil Medvedev. Picture: Mackenzie Sweetnam/Getty Images

The Australian Open is usually held in January but was pushed back to allow for the world’s top tennis players to quarantine due to COVID-19.

Novak Djokovic’s title win over Daniil Medvedev rated the lowest night time men’s final ever and the lowest men’s final since 2003, when Andre Agassi defeated Rainer Schüttler.

Some 1.17 million Australians in five city metro markets tuned in to the final match on Sunday night, a drop of 23 per cent from 2020 ratings of 1.52 million viewers.

Starting last year, Nine snatched the Australian Open tennis rights from Seven in a five year deal worth $300 million.

Naomi Osaka won the women’s tournament, beating Jennifer Brady in the final. Picture : NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

“Nine bought the TV rights to the Australian Open for one reason and that is to give it a big promotional platform for its shows ahead of the start of the annual ratings year,” one well-placed TV executive noted.

“That strategy worked well last year but it has been an expensive failure this year. Predicting TV ratings is a tricky business, but you have to think that the AO’s TV audience slump is going to really hurt the performance of key Nine shows such as Married At First Sight. The other issue for Nine is that it told advertisers in the AO this year that the tournament would attract the same audiences as in 2020. The 30 per cent drop this year means Nine will have to give a truckload of makegoods to those advertisers, which will hurt its revenue across the year.”

The new season of Married At First Sight launches tonight.

Earlier this month, Nine sports sales boss Matt Granger hit out at the ‘weak’ competition in the market. Prime time evening competition to the Open has included Ten’s The Amazing Race and Holey Moley on Seven.

Holey Moley started strong in its first few episodes but dropped considerably as the season progressed.

“The counterprogramming that’s been attempted by competitors is looking weak at the moment, giving us an even stronger platform to drive into, which could even bolster some of our earlier evening sessions,” Granger said.

When contacted, Nine said it had always expected a change in viewing with the Australian Open moving to February. It has claimed record viewing on its digital platforms and for the second official week of ratings for the year registered an overall leading share of 41.6 per cent of the viewing audience, ahead of Seven at 34.3 per cent and Ten at 24.2 per cent.

“The first two weeks of the survey year has seen Nine off to the best start with Total People and 16-39s in more than a decade and our second best start with people 25-54,” Nine Program Director Hamish Turner said.

Novak Djokovic poses with the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup after winning the Australian Open. Picture: Graham Denholm/Getty Images

“Once again, the Australian Open has captured the attention of millions of Australians. Be it (Nick) Kyrgios’ stellar five set match against Dominic Thiem in week one – which saw the audience peak with 1.8 million and was the most watched non-news event across the five cities so far in 2021 – and the finals which peaked at almost 1.4 million respectively for the women’s match and 1.8 million for the men’s final, the AO has a unique place in Australian TV. We are very happy with the incredible launch pad the Australian Open has given us into Married At First Sight and have every expectation that it will again dominate the key demographics throughout Q1 as Australia falls in love with the experiment.”

Originally published as 2021 Australian Open TV ratings down after COVID date change