Nine faces ratings hit following Australian Open tennis delay

Seven and Ten will get the jump on the ratings year as a delay to the Australian Open tennis tournament spoils Nine’s plans to launch new shows.

Novak Djokovic celebrates after beating Dominic Thiem in the men’s singles final at the Australian Open in Melbourne earlier this year. Picture: AFP

Seven and Ten will get the jump on the ratings year as a disastrous delay to the Australian Open tennis tournament spoils Nine’s plans to launch new shows.

Industry figures say the broadcaster’s rivals will be given “space” to launch their headline reality programs for the year before Nine can get out of the blocks, forced to run tennis well past its traditional January timing.

The late tournament, which is not likely to feature all of the world’s best players, is a blow for Nine as it desperately tries to chase summer sport audiences having allowed cricket to move to Seven and Fox Sport. But Nine Entertainment, which has a $300m five-year broadcast deal with Tennis Australia, has been given minor concessions by organisers, securing a discount of more than 10 per cent on its $60m payment for the 2021 event.

The re-cut deal comes as Sydney’s COVID-19 outbreak throws into doubt a strong of top sports events including the Sydney-Hobart yacht race and the ATP Cup, as well as the New Year’s Test between Australia and India.

The Australia Open will now start on February 9 instead of January 18, but Nine still faces as much as $54m in broadcast payments for the tournament.

The delay of the first grand slam tournament of 2021 is expected to have a knock-on effect on Nine’s start to the new ratings year, which kicks off with the latest season of reality dating show Married at First Sight.

It is the second sports broadcast discount for Nine after the coronavirus crisis hit the NRL season this year, and comes as staunch rival Seven West Media fights Cricket Australia for a better broadcast deal.

Seven has the Sydney starting line rights for the Sydney-Hobart yacht race, which has now been cancelled given concerns about the coronavirus outbreak in the city’s northern beaches.

Meanwhile, the Australian tennis season will be shortened, running for only three weeks rather than as much as five, with the ATP Cup previously scheduled for early January now up in the air.

The ATP Cup is seen as a key marketing platform for the Australian Open. A Nine spokeswoman said it would work with Tennis Australia to “bring viewers a bumper schedule of tennis in the new year”, adding that the broadcast details would be announced in the coming weeks.

Tennis Australia revealed that the Australian Open would run from February 8-21, two days after the Association of Tennis Professionals said it would be delayed by three weeks. All players and their teams arriving for the Australian Open will have to quarantine for 14 days prior to the tournament’s commencement.

Claire Butterworth, chief investment officer at MediaCom, said the Australian Open moving back in the schedule would have an impact. It would also help Seven and Ten with the launch of their shows, new mini-golf reality show Holey Moley and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!, respectively.

However, the tournament was still going ahead, and Nine would use it as a “launchpad” for its line-up for the year, she said.

“Sport audiences remained incredibly strong in 2020 and we anticipate the same in 2021,” Ms Butterworth said.

“The decision is out of Nine’s hands and broadcasters. Advertisers and agencies alike have all become very nimble, learned to roll with the punches and make commercially sound decisions in the face of disruption to what we would normally expect in 2020.”

Tribal Australia head of strategy Caitlin Lloyd said the tennis delay would affect Nine’s ability to get strong ratings at the beginning of the year, but the appetite would be there three weeks later.

“It’s hard to evaluate the real impact till we know which athletes will be taking part,” she said.

In May, Nine and Foxtel’s Fox Sports clinched a new $1bn-plus broadcast deal with the NRL after the season was halted in March after two rounds due to the coronavirus crisis. The season restarted two months later. The parties are understood to have been given a 30 per cent discount on their deal until the end of 2022.