Australian Open 2018: TV giants set for grand slam tennis rights battle

BROADCASTING archrivals Nine and Seven are gearing up to go to war over Australian Open tennis, with the former setting its sights on poaching the tennis when the current contract expires in 2019.

Will we Serena Williams battling it out for another Australian Open title on Channel 9 in a few years? Picture: AFP/Saeed Khan

BROADCASTING archrivals Nine and Seven are gearing up to go to war over Australian Open tennis.

After 50-odd years as the home of cricket, Nine’s decided it may call stumps amid concerns the game no longer offers a big enough return on its multimillion-dollar outlay for the rights.

With more cash in its kitty, the network has its sights on poaching the tennis from Seven when that contract expires in 2019.

Will we Serena Williams battling it out for another Australian Open title on Channel 9 in a few years? Picture: AFP/Saeed Khan

Seven is returning serve and may make its own play for the cricket, even though it has proven to be a loser for Nine of late.

Seven has relied on the Open tennis to kick off its annual schedule with a bang.

Seven West Media is paying Tennis Australia $200 million for free-to-air, pay TV and digital rights as part of a five-year deal.

Whereas Nine, the sole broadcaster of Australia’s home cricket internationals since 1979, pays $500 million for the rights for home Tests, one-dayers and Twenty20 internationals, under a five-year deal struck in 2013.

KNIVES ARE OUT

WHICH Aussie five-star chef has the best home kitchen? Dishy chef Guillaume Brahimi wasn’t ready to spill the beans while cooking up a storm for the Stella Artois Sensorium lunch at Shannon Bennett’s pile.

The Vue de Monde chef, who sold the Cromwell Rd venue for a tidy $10 million late last month, was up at his Byron Bay retreat on the day, but Brahimi said he had plenty of practice in his oil’ mate’s kitchen and they cooked for family gatherings at their Melbourne and Byron pads.

Guillaume Brahimi. Picture: Carly Ravenhall

The in-residence Stella Artois Sensoriums are fast becoming the place to be for ladies who lunch.

Bennett kindly left his furniture in place for the stylish event, including a Jeffrey Smart in the living room, as you do, which will be rehung in his new $17 million Lansell Rd, Toorak abode. Tress bien!

COME FLY WITH ME

MOVE over Hugh Jackman, there’s a new Hugh in town.

All singing-smiling sensation Hugh Sheridan was wowing the well-heeled at the Qantas Dreamliner’s LA-Melbourne launch with Visit California on Thursday.

Sheridan busted some tabletop moves as the California Crooners Club sang Dreamers, a song penned by the former Packed To The Rafters star to pair with Dreamliner flights direct from Melbourne to San Fran.

Hugh Sheridan performs with the Californian Crooners at the Qantas Dreamliners launch. Picture: Supplied/James Morgan

Gareth Evans, hotly tipped as Alan Joyce’s successor after he took the captain’s chair at Jetstar, mingled with his replacement, new Qantas CEO international Alison Webster, while genetically blessed sisters Jess — a “style consultant” for the Flying Kangaroo — and Ash Hart provided plenty of eye candy.

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