How Seven and Nine are fighting for summer viewers in the war between cricket and tennis
The biggest sporting rivalry this summer isn't on the field - it's between Seven and Nine as they compete for millions of viewers through cricket and tennis.
It is the heavyweight showdown for free-to-air television supremacy this summer, a battle for the eyeballs of the sports loving public.
In the red corner is Channel Seven, armed with the Ashes cricket, a five Test series running from Friday to the first week of the New Year and a thumping ratings winner when contested in Australia every four years.
Over in the blue corner Channel Nine will be throwing its punches in the back end of the fight when the Australian Open tennis dominates the last two weeks of January.
Leading media analyst Steve Allen believes the “Dust-Up Down Under” sees Seven well-placed.
“The Ashes tour is the pinnacle of cricket and will rate very well – but Seven will hope it’s competitive,” he said.
“It’s a truism of Australian sport that we love competition. If the Ashes from Test one is a whitewash of the Poms, it won’t reach the same ratings as a hard fought contest.”
A leading TV industry insider disagrees, saying: “We love pounding the Poms. If we serve it up to them this time around, people won’t get enough of it.”
But in the battle for viewers – both on the box and through streaming on portable devices – Allen says there is a worrying factor Nine has to combat.
“Tennis is competitive but it can’t get super ratings unless Australians are well into the second week,” he added. “If we don’t have them it’s reflected in viewership.”
Alex di Minaur will likely be the sole hope of reaching the last eight in the men’s or women’s singles. He has reached the quarter finals of grand slam events six times previously but never gone further.
In 2022, when Ash Barty won the women’s title, the TV audience was 3.83 million. Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis attracted 2.48m for the men’s doubles final.
In the three years since, with no Barty, no Kyrgios, and no Australian threatening to lift a singles crown, the women’s final has flatlined around 1.5m and the men’s title decider at a tick over 2m.
The 2024-25 summer saw Seven’s cricket coverage reach 17.6m Aussies. Nine’s reach with tennis was 14.4m.
But Seven too faces issues. Another high-ranking industry figure said Kayo Sports, delivered by Foxtel, has eaten deeply into Seven’s share of the cricket audience and holds around 40 per cent.
Kayo Sports also has the Australian team’s white ball games – the one-day and T20 internationals – exclusively.
“There’s a further really important consideration here when you’re looking at coverage of cricket and tennis,” one source told The Daily Telegraph.
“Nine hold the rights to the tennis but it’s Tennis Australia that controls production. Having a governing body in that position means it’s going to be sanitised.
“With the cricket, Kayo Sports is host broadcaster for the Tests and Seven has some additional cameras for their coverage. There is no risk of sanitising the cricket.”
Nine swooped on tennis in 2018, realising the Australian Open, in its late January timeslot, provided an ideal launch pad to promote the year’s upcoming program line-up. Seven then secured rights to cricket, taking them from their long-term home at Nine.
Seven had used the tennis coverage to aggressively promote and build an audience for the smash hit My Kitchen Rules. Nine then leveraged it for Married At First Sight, pulling blockbuster ratings not previously evident in the show’s first two seasons.
“David Gyngell was still on the board at Nine when they made the decision to go to tennis,” another TV insider said.
“There was significant emotional attachment to cricket. It was the Packer legacy. Nine had changed the game. But that traditional team of Richie Benaud, Tony Greig, Ian Chappell and Bill Lawry were no longer there.
“A new generation had rolled in and from a P&L point of view, as well as grabbing that strategic ability to launch programs at the start of the year to a massive audience, the decision was clear.
“Nine was losing $50 million a year on cricket – rights and production were at $120m and advertising bringing in $70m.
“Tennis rights and production had a fixed cost base of probably $70m with revenue of $45-$50m.
“Still a loss but not at the same level and tennis can set up the ratings year.”
Allen agreed, saying: “The big show that got Nine new momentum, got them to No.1, and No.1 in the right demographics, was Married At First Sight. It came off the back of the tennis.
“But while Nine was the initial winner in that swapping of sports initially, I think Seven is the long-term winner.
“By the same token, Fox (Kayo) is causing it damage, and Seven would be better off if it wasn’t in the mix. But cricket can’t get the revenues they want without Fox prominently in there.”
Nine refused to discuss the forthcoming free-to-air sports showdown.
Seven head of sport Chris Jones was happy to chat, but offered no smack talk.
“The beauty with cricket is it starts October-November and carries us all the way through to March,” he said.
“There’s just so much content and it lives with the Australian sporting public day in, day out.
“When you complement that with the Big Bash (domestic T20 league) that has been back in a big way in the last couple of years … and the WBBL … it’s exciting.
“The tennis is a wonderful product but we wouldn’t trade what we’ve got now for quids. When you’re talking the sounds of summer cricket is there, the constant in the background … it’s our national sport.”
Originally published as How Seven and Nine are fighting for summer viewers in the war between cricket and tennis
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