Nine Entertainment splashes the cash on corporate guests at Paris Olympics despite paper strike

While the print arm of the business has gone on strike, Nine Entertainment has loosened the purse strings for its corporate guests in Paris with business class flights, five star hotel stays and more.

Nine CEO Mike Sneesby at the Olympic torch relay. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

No expense has been spared as Nine Entertainment wines, dines, hosts and schmoozes its corporate guests.

While strikes have affected the print arm of the business, you wouldn’t know it on the ground in Paris where lavish expenditure reigns.

Company boss Mike Sneesby is hosting three waves of guests through the Games, the first group were taken to the opening ceremony on Friday night with the prime position seats rumoured to have cost 4000 euros each.

The VIPs were offered business class flights over to Paris and are being put up at a five star hotel costing $1500 a night.

On the itinerary is a meal at Paris’ famed Girafe restaurant, with stunning views of the Eiffel Tower on its terrace and a glamorous 1930s feel inside.

Nine CEO Mike Sneesby carries the Paris Olympics torch in the Olympic torch relay. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

There’s also tickets to picturesque beach volleyball at the foot of the Eiffel Tower for Nine’s guests and tennis at the famous French Open venue at Roland Garros, plus plenty of Australian medal chances during nights at the swimming and then athletics for the final group.

Executives from Nine sponsors such as Woolworths, NRMA Insurance, Toyota are expected to have travelled to Paris after taking advertising packages worth more than $10m with the official broadcaster.

Sneesby will leave Paris on Tuesday to return to Australia just as the industrial action taken by his reporters comes to an end, and there’s little chance he will be warmly welcomed back to Sydney head office.

The exorbitant hosting in the French capital has incensed those journalists striking over pay disputes and a raft of recent redundancies.

The Age state political reporter Broede Carmody called on Sneesby and all other executives to forgo their bonuses from the last two financial years and instead reinvest them back into the company.

“How many jobs could have been saved if this company didn’t fly TV people who are unrelated to the Olympics to Paris and put them up in luxury hotels that cost $1000 a night,’’ he said.

“For Mike Sneesby to claim today that the coverage will go on and the papers will look great - well, I’m sorry, how will the paper look great for five days with 500 people walking out the door?”

Embattled Nine Entertainment CEO Mike Sneesby at the Australian Flag Bearer announcement. Picture: Supplied

Sneesby was bailed up by Channel 7 at his luxury Paris hotel but declined to comment on the strike situation, saying he was meeting family for the evening.

The Nine boss previously took part in the torch relay, which was also criticised, but told Paris Confidential it was a proud and emotional moment when he was spotted at the official Australian Flagbearers announcement on the eve of the Games.

Sneesby last week also told Nine staff he is “profoundly disappointed” that journalists voted to walk off the job for five day over a pay dispute, after which staff were pictured wearing “don’t torch journalism” t-shirts featuring a caricature of their boss holding the Olympic torch.

He had also told staff the strike action by about 500 publishing staff has come “on the eve of one of the biggest news events on the planet”.

Nine Entertainment paid $305m for the exclusive rights to the next five summer and winter Olympic Games, from Paris to Brisbane in 2032.