Hutchison’s company at the centre of footy media shake-up

Sports businessman and journalist Craig Hutchison looms as kingmaker in a major shake-up of the AFL media, and is expected to join the on-air talent leaving Nine for Seven in 2025.

Nine’s flagship football show Footy Classified went to air on Tuesday night, delayed 24 hours due to the Brownlow, allowing for a crisis to unfold after it was revealed Age news breaker and columnist Caroline Wilson was set to follow Kane Cornes to Seven next year.

Nine’s Footy Classified panelists Caroline Wilson, Kane Cornes, Craig Hutchison, and Matthew Lloyd on Tuesday. Credit: 9Now

Hutchison, who hosts the Monday night edition of Classified on Nine (owner of this masthead), shared a house with Seven’s new head of sport, Chris Jones, when both were young television reporters.

Hutchison is set to also feature on Seven next year as his production company, Rainmaker, expands its relationship with the Kerry Stokes-controlled network. Two industry sources, speaking anonymously to talk freely, did not expect Hutchison to return to Footy Classified next season.

Rainmaker also produces Seven’s AFLW, hockey, athletics and surfing coverage.

Hutchison arrived at Nine’s Docklands office and studios several hours before Footy Classified went to air on Tuesday. As the chief executive and second-largest shareholder of Sports Entertainment Group, owner of sports radio network SEN and Rainmaker, he is a key player in a major shift in football media as the AFL’s $4.5 billion broadcast deal with Seven and Foxtel kicks in for 2025.

SEN also produces the Don’t Shoot the Messenger podcast, in which Wilson teams up with friend and former sports journalist Corrie Perkin.

Rainmaker is a direct rival of Eddie McGuire’s JAM TV, which produces Footy Classified. Both individuals have unique positions in Australia’s small and concentrated sports and media industries, as both production owners and on-screen talent.

On Tuesday night, Hutchison introduced co-panellists Cornes, Matthew Lloyd and Wilson without mention of the moves. It made for an occasion less lively than usual, taking 22 minutes before any laughs were shared between the quartet.

It looked particularly uncomfortable for Lloyd, the former Essendon champion and the only one of the four panellists expected to stay with Nine in 2025.

Cornes, a popular hot-take specialist and 300-gamer for Port Adelaide, was announced to be joining Seven last month in a major coup.

An official announcement about Wilson’s move to Seven had been expected on Wednesday, but that now appears unlikely. Seven did not respond to a series of questions, while Hutchison could not be reached ahead of this story’s publication. Nine also declined to comment.

Hutchison and McGuire are close friends, but there are plenty of personal and professional rivalries in an industry filled with former players and media personalities. When Hutchison suggested on air that former Western Bulldogs captain and media commentator Luke Darcy could soon turn his hand to politics with the Victorian Liberal Party, Cornes quipped, “I just became a Labor voter”, in the latest instalment of a tense relationship between the pair.

McGuire commissioned Footy Classified himself in 2007 during his brief stint as chief executive of Nine. Hutchison and Wilson are the only founding panellists to remain on the show, while McGuire continues to host the Wednesday night edition himself. Despite the ongoing drama, McGuire and Hutchison met on Wednesday morning, with the events considered part of business.

Rainmaker and JAM are relative minnows when compared to market leaders Gravity and NEP Australia.

The new AFL broadcast deal will see the sport broadcast on Seven’s digital platform 7Plus for the first time, while Foxtel will now produce, host and call every game across the season itself, with exclusive “Super Saturday” coverage for the first eight weeks of the 2025 season.

Part of the contract demands an increase to Seven’s football-related programming throughout the week, a domain Nine has excelled in, despite not having any broadcast rights since 2005. Seven also wants to get better returns on its annual outlay to the AFL, estimated at $225 million, which is just shy of the company’s current market capitalisation of $262 million. Foxtel picks up around 65 per cent of the bill.

“If you’re investing in rights, you want to make sure you support it with product,” Hutchison said on his Sounding Board podcast this week.

Footy Classified host Eddie McGuire.Credit: Nine

Expanding its coverage could be even more lucrative for Seven, with this weekend’s grand final featuring two teams – the Brisbane Lions and Sydney Swans – from the NRL’s heartland states.

ARL Commission chair and sports power broker Peter V’Landys took a swipe at the competing code this week, claiming the sport sometimes only gets 23,000 viewers in Sydney. The Swans’ preliminary final victory over Port Adelaide on Friday, while a relatively dull encounter, had an average broadcast audience of 153,000 in Sydney, compared to the 250,000 viewing the Cronulla Sharks win over the North Queensland Cowboys on the same night.

The new contract also means Seven is facing a battle on two-fronts, its mid-week programming against free-to-air rival Nine, and now a more fierce broadcast and in-game coverage battle against Fox.

Seven intends to broadcast football-related programs on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, with matches on Thursday and Friday. SEN is likely to play host to some of this programming at its Southbank studios initially, while Seven continues its relocation from Docklands into a new Collins St office in Melbourne’s CBD.

While Wilson will continue her duties as a columnist for The Age and regular spots on 3AW, it is not unusual for media personalities in Australia. Talent often works across multiple radio and television networks, including Fox Sports, Nine, Seven, 3AW, SEN and Triple M. Until 2022, for example, former North Melbourne champion Wayne Carey worked as a columnist for The Age while appearing on Seven’s Friday night broadcast.

With expanded coverage and talent needed next year, SEN in-game caller Gerard Whateley is expected to expand his relationship with Fox to commentate matches in 2025. He is already the host of talk show AFL 360, alongside Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson.

With Darcy, who works for Seven and Triple M, to step back from the media industry entirely, Hamish McLachlan, the brother of former AFL chief executive Gillon, will likely return as the anchor for Seven’s match-day coverage, with talk of a mid-week interview show in the works.

Nine intends to carry Footy Classified on into 2025, however with the talent moves only happening this week, has not firmed up its hosting line-up, sources close to the network not authorised to speak publicly said.

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