ABC’s Olympic Games pitch to Nine falls flat

ABC’s failure to secure a seat at the Olympic table means that for just the second time since 1952, it will not provide any live radio coverage of competition at a summer Games.

ABC Radio will not be airing any live commentary from the Paris Olympics. Picture: Adam Head

ABC Radio will not be airing any live commentary from the Paris Olympics, after making an unsuccessful last-minute approach to Games rights-holders Nine to consider a sub-licensing deal.

ABC’s failure to secure a seat at the Olympic table means that for just the second time since the 1952 Helsinki Games, the taxpayer-funded broadcaster will not provide its millions of listeners with any live radio coverage of competition at a summer Games.

The only other occasion that the ABC did not offer live commentary at a summer Olympics was at the Tokyo Olympics – which was postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to Covid – when the national broadcaster chose to withdraw from negotiations with then rights-holders Seven due to the cost of covering the event.

On Sunday, a spokesman for the ABC insisted discussions with Nine for a possible sub-licensing deal for live radio rights in Paris were continuing.

“We won’t comment on discussions that are under way.

“However, the ABC operates the largest radio network across rural and regional Australia and would welcome the opportunity to provide coverage of the Paris Olympics to communities across the country,” the spokesman said.

But the ABC’s claim of live talks was news to Nine.

“Nine is the home of the Olympics and Paralympics.

“We are not sub-licensing any content.

“Listeners will be able to tune in via our radio apps anywhere in Australia, and commercial regional stations will be able to simulcast our feed if they wish,” a Nine spokesman said.

Last February, Nine won exclusive rights for the next three summer Olympics, up to and including the 2032 Games in Brisbane, as well the 2026 and 2030 winter Games, in a deal said to be worth $305m.

The deal delivered television and audio rights to the network, with the latter to be broadcast across its talk stations 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR.

The Australian understands that the ABC’s recent approach to Nine, requesting meetings to discuss a possible sub-licensing deal regarding the rights to live commentary at the Olympics, was immediately rebuffed by Nine and no formal talks on the matter were ever held.

“Our whole strategy is built around exclusivity.

“We don’t want to share any audience with the ABC,” a senior Nine figure told The Australian.

The shut-out of the ABC for the second summer Games in a row is a bitter blow for the ABC, as Olympics coverage has long been seen as “core business” for the national broadcaster.

Former ABC sports journalist Tracey Holmes, who has covered 14 Olympics, accused the ABC of getting its priorities wrong.

“The ABC’s responsibility as the national broadcaster is to reflect Australian culture, and report on national and international events that are of significant importance to the Australian people. The Olympic Games are very much part of that mandate,” Holmes told The Australian.

“It saddens me that the many levels of management that now chart the course of the ABC continue to diminish the relevance of sport and how it contributes to our place on the world stage.

“I have heard the argument it has to do with money.

“The ABC gets a billion dollars a year.

“This is not about money, this is about priorities.”

Nine’s pitch for advertising partners is already well under way, with top-tier packages during the Games valued close to $10-13m.

Advertising is critical for any network’s Olympic coverage, given the extraordinary costs associated with a Games broadcast.