Nine sees its Australian Open tennis ratings plummet

The Australian Open television audiences have taken a dive in the first week and it is a concern for the event’s broadcaster who recently signed a five-year $500m deal.

Fourth seed Novak Djokovic is one of the few remaining TV audience drawcards in the Australian Open. Picture: AFP

Nine’s tennis ratings plummeted across the first week of the Australian Open, with the absence of Nick Kyrgios and the early losses of other high-profile stars leaving the tournament short of its usual star power.

Official data from television ratings firm OzTAM show that in the first six nights of this year’s tournament the average viewing audience in the five major metropolitan cities was just 426,000 – a 39 per cent drop compared to the first six nights of last year’s grand slam event, which drew an average of 668,000 viewers.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Nine executives, given they recently signed a $500m, five-year TV deal – the highest in the sport’s history – to broadcast the Australian Open and other tennis events until 2029. A leading sports rights expert, who did not wish to be named, said the declining audiences were largely due to big names being knocked out and a “changing of the guard” of high-profile players coming up through the ranks.

“They haven’t had those massive five-setters nor have they have had the theatrics of the Special Ks (Kyrgios and doubles partner Thanasi Kokkinakis),” he said. “Channel 9 really are dependent on the value of their tennis rights being the two weeks of the Australian Open and nothing else counts.”

Women’s top seed Iga Swiatek was eliminated on Sunday. Picture: Getty Images

The expert said while this year has seen falling audiences Nine “would want to reverse that trend fast next year”.

“They’ll be looking at what they can do to grow those numbers significantly on Channel 9, 9Gem and 9Now,” he said.

The soft ratings could have consequences for the ratings performances of some of Nine’s key drawcards, particularly in the first quarter of the year, as the Open is traditionally used as a platform to promote the network’s program slate for the year ahead.

The withdrawal of controversial Australian star Kyrgios before the Open kicked off was a disaster for organisers, and several of the top seeds in the men’s and women’s tournaments were eliminated in the first week, including men’s number one seed Rafael Nadal.

A TV industry source told The Australian last week “history shows that when the big names aren’t playing, or get knocked out early, TV viewers lose interest”.

However, despite the falling ratings, a Nine spokesman said viewers were increasingly turning to the network’s streaming platform, 9Now, which is available on digital devices, and smart TVs to stream matches, and those viewing are not immediately captured in the official OzTAM data.

Nine will be hoping Monday night’s match between Australian Alex de Minaur – the nation’s remaining Open hope – and Serbian Novak Djokovic, the fourth seed, will be the biggest TV drawcard of the event and lure a large audience.