Australian Open: TV viewer numbers drop 40 per cent after ‘perfect storm’ in 2022

Just after signing a new $500 million TV rights deal, Channel 9 has been hit with a 40 per cent drop-off in Aus Open viewers. Find out what went wrong and what it means.

Nick Kyrgios was a huge loss to this year’s Australian Open coverage. Picture: Getty Images

Millions of tennis fans who tuned into the Australian Open last year have gone missing in 2023.

Just months after signing a new $500 million television deal with Tennis Australia, Channel 9 has taken a massive hit with experts saying there has been a 40 per cent drop-off of viewers.

Last year’s Open was the “perfect storm” for the broadcaster with Ash Barty winning the women’s title, the Special Ks (Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis) claiming the men’s double and fan favourite Rafael Nadal taking out the men’s crown.

And while that was never going to be repeated, the dramatic drop-off in the region of 3-4 million viewers has been more than forecast although there have been mitigating factors.

New men’s world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz didn’t show up, Kyrgios pulled out on the eve of the tournament followed by Australia’s best female player Ajla Tomljanovic while Nadal exited early as did a number of the top female seeds.

Media analyst Steve Allen said it was “impossible” to repeat the 2022 ratings bonanza but Nine executives would be concerned with this year’s numbers.

Alex de Minaur played in one of the highest rating matches of the tournament. Picture: Mark Stewart

“This year was almost impossible with the Australians dropping out and most of the key players that people have kind of some big relationship with dropping out in the first week,” Allen said.

“There are so many of the global seeded players who do have star power not appearing here so it was always going to be lower ratings. Even so the ratings are a bit lower than I would have expected. It‘s dramatically down, 30 or 40 per cent down.”

Allen questioned the direction of this year‘s coverage with a sense there had been a push away from female matches.

“Whoever is producing and directing it at Nine doesn‘t quite understand tennis,” he said. ”What Nine seemed to have done is they’ve pursued Australian players and they’ve pursued men players at the expense of female players and to the expense of other key overseas players.

“It hasn‘t worked, that just isn’t the recipe.”

Leading TV expert Colin Vickery said Nine would have been expecting to drop around 20 per cent from last year‘s “perfect storm”.

“Personally I would have looked at this year and said, ‘Look you are probably going to lose 20 per cent of your audience’. The fact that it has lost more than that would be disappointing for Nine but it really was a perfect storm of bad news this year in a way that last year was all good news.”

Vickery said relying on the Novak Djokovic factor to keep people tuning in was the wrong strategy.

The Special Ks were a huge ratings driver for Channel 9. Picture: AFP Images

“We know Djokovic really isn‘t a ratings drawcard in my mind so the fact of him being part of it this year, I think doesn’t make any difference,” he said.

“The world of tennis is lacking TV ratings drawcards at the moment, it is in a transition phase. The drawcards who are reliable like Ash Barty, (Roger) Federer, they have gone and there are very few coming through right at this moment.

“Nine have lost more (viewers) than they would have thought, which is disappointing but they would be thinking they’re not going to be running into that same problem next year.”

Last year‘s numbers were nirvana for Nine with Barty’s women’s final the highest rating of all time, watched by an Australian television audience of 3.835 million.

The men’s final was the highest rating in four years, with a domestic TV audience of 2.333 million viewers while the all-Aussie men’s doubles final was the highest rating Australian Open men’s doubles match of all time, with 2.482 million tuning in across the country.

Djokovic taking on Aussie Alex de Minaur last Monday night had the biggest audience of the early stages of the 2023 tournament with 730,000.

Nick Kyrgios pulled out of the Australian Open on the opening day. Picture: Getty Images

Friday night’s men’s semi-final featuring Djokovic and American Tommy Paul had a peak audience of 1.099 million.

The biggest last year – aside from the final – came on the second Thursday, which was women‘s semi-final action featuring Barty, with 1.34 million fans watching.

A Nine spokesman said this year’s Open had seen a significant change in viewers habits.

“The Australian Open is the most high profile and significant summer sport to launch the television year. Coming off a year where Ash Barty and the Special Ks won, it was always going to be a tough act to follow,” he said.

“But this year we have seen a huge 9Now viewership, as viewers continue to migrate from linear to streaming. With a cumulative reach of 9.062 million viewers from day 1 to day 11, the AO has enthralled viewers.”