Nine Entertainment is expected to take an audience hit after Kyrgios departure from the Australian Open

The Australian Open’s television broadcaster has splashed out a fortune for the TV rights, but audiences are likely to take a hit following the withdrawal of Kyrgios.

The abrupt exit of Nick Kyrgios from the Australian Open is expected to have a ripple effect for the event’s television broadcaster, who rely on him to draw large audiences, lure advertisers and help promote the station’s upcoming programs in 2023.

The 27-year-old’s departure due to a knee injury is predicted to cause a marketing nightmare for Nine Entertainment and Tennis Australia – event advertisements and tournament promotions will likely be reworked given the controversial star won’t be taking part.

Kyrgios was scheduled to play singles and defend his doubles title alongside Thanasi Kokkinakis and his withdrawal could result in reduced TV audiences – last year the pair’s final victory drew a national average TV audience of nearly 2.3 million viewers.

Ash Barty’s singles victory in 2022 broke the record for the largest audience for the women’s final, drawing just under 3.6 million viewers nationally, but she too won’t be at the event after retiring last year.

Sources from the television industry said Kyrgios’ exit is a “massive blow for Nine, leaving it with only two big-name men players (Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic) and no drawcard women players to draw in viewers ”.

“History shows that when the big names aren’t playing, or get knocked out early, TV viewers lose interest,” one insider said.

Nick Kyrgios withdrew from the Australian Open on Monday, due to a knee injury. Picture: David Caird

Figures from TV ratings firm OzTAM showed the first night session on Nine that aired on Monday night drew 476,000 national viewers compared to 885,000 viewers who tuned in for the first night session in 2022 – a decrease of 46 per cent this year.

In November, Nine signed a multimillion five-year deal to broadcast the Australian Open and other tennis events until 2029 which will cost an average of $85m in cash each year, and in addition to this advertising and promotions which could be worth an additional $10m.
Nine will also broadcast the sport’s other three grand slams, including Wimbledon, and the French and US Open later this year.

A leading sports rights expert, who did not wish to be named, said not having Kyrgios and Barty in the tournament would likely impact the number of TV viewers tuning into the Open.

“Nine can kick off their season and use the Australian Open as a promotion, the halo effect is still valid using the Australian Open,” he said.

“It’s not only the loss of Kyrgios as the singles player but also for the doubles, last year’s ratings for doubles were well up on previous years, and it was scintillating television with the Special K’s (Kyrgios and Kokkinakis) and the public embraced it.”

It also could impact Nine’s audiences for their news programs including the nightly 6pm bulletins and its morning program, Today, who rely on viewers tuning in to get the information about the tournament.

University of Melbourne’s marketing lecturer Brent Coker said Kyrgios is “one of the bigger characters” and “without him, it’s whatever they are left with” to draw in audiences and promote the tournament.

“There’s a large portion of Australian consumers that only watch Australians play, and they (Nine and the Australian Open) are going to have to rejig their marketing,” he said.

A Nine spokesman defended the success of the tournament and said the Australian Open remained “one of the world’s greatest sporting events”.

“We all feel for Nick in having to make this tough decision and of course are disappointed for him and his team, but we know this iconic tournament will continue to deliver the very best tennis for our audience on the Nine network and 9Now.”