Nine is the media company to launch the 2023 upfront season, and has kicked things off with a bang. The company has made a series of announcements across its television, streaming, radio, and publishing businesses.
A detailed breakdown of the announcements can be seen here:
Nine Upfront 2023: Nine announces Premium Traffic Network
Nine Upfront 2023: 9Now redesigned with completely new user experience
Nine Upfront 2023: Nine announces big commercial changes across publishing and radio
Nine Upfront 2023: Nine to supercharge Brisbane Times with new investment
Nine Upfront 2023: Every announcement
Nine Upfront 2023: New and Returning programs
Nine Upfront 2023: Nine announces action reality, The Summit
Nine Upfront 2023: Gordon Ramsay teams up with Nine for Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars
Nine Upfront 2023: Nine to pay tribute to Shane Warne’s life in Warnie
Nine Upfront 2023: My Mum Your Dad coming to Nine
Nine Upfront 2023: Nine brings Big Miracles
Nine Upfront 2023: Nine’s new Aussie drama, Human Error
At a media briefing before the Upfront, Michael Stephenson, chief sales officer, and Jo Clasby, director of sales total publishing, spoke about the value that these announcements bring to their proposition to the market.
When asked about what Nine’s pitch is off the back of this upfront, Stephenson said that coming out of a pandemic, it is important that people choose the right media partner.
“Through times of economic change, there is an enormous opportunity for everyone. Never will it be more important to choose a media partner that can help you grow your business. We’re not perfect, but we’re lots of things to lots of people, and I think we should be everybody’s primary media partner.
“We don’t spend that much time thinking about old competitors. We think about how we can accelerate into the growing digital video market or digital audio market. That’s why live streaming and audio, and why digital ad insertion into today’s paper is so important – because they allow you to operate in emerging markets, not traditional ones because we’re not a traditional company.”
Nine Upfront 2023: 9Now and Stan
The upfront saw the announcement that Nine’s digital platform 9Now will undergo a transformation from the ground up, reshaping how viewers consume its content. The transformation will also offer advertisers new opportunities.
In an Australian first for BVOD platforms, 9Now will offer a converged experience that combines the simplicity of broadcast television with the convenience and interactivity of digital.
The change to 9Now will include:
• A new homepage that allows users to dive straight into the live content stream
• A “start over” option that takes viewers back to the start of any live program
• Personalised household profiles
• A new discover page
• The introduction of new 24/7 Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) channels with exclusive additional content
• Interactive advertising experience on connected TVs (CTV) – all offered live in full HD.
Nine has also committed to creating and producing over 20 originals on its subscription video service, Stan.
When asked if this new design of 9Now would see more cross-pollinating of customers, Stephenson said yes and no.
“We’re really lucky in the fact that we have such a unique business. There aren’t many companies in the world – I can’t think of any, maybe there’s one in the Nordics – where one business has both a subscription business, an ad-funded business and, of course, a linear broadcast business.
“The content that we create from a linear point of view extends into 9Now, but there is this unique opportunity for us to create value for subscribers by creating content specifically for that platform.
“Never say never, but I think it is highly unlikely that you’ll see Stan content on Nine or vice versa. I think having a differentiated product and market is really important. What we will possibly do in the future, is that one of the benefits of 9Now’s streaming product is our ability to create free ad-funded streaming channels, or FAST channels in 9Now. In the lead-up to Married at First Sight for example, we could have a Married at First Sight specific channel that we create as a pop-up channel for three or four weeks.
“We could create a Stan channel, where we had the first episode of a range of shows on 9Now as a marketing and promotional platform. But you won’t see in any of our plans to have content shared between the two.”
When asked if there was any concern that a strong 9Now now might cannibalise paid subscribers from Stan, Stephenson said that the value proposition is in the eye of the beholder.
“The content that we produce for Stan is specifically for that platform. The content proposition is different and of course, one has ads and one doesn’t. You’ll determine what that value equation is for you as an individual. At Stan, we have seven and a half million subscribers on our base, and we have got two and a half million actives. Stan Sport, of course, adds to that offering as well. It’s different to what you’ll get on Nine or 9Now.”
Nine Upfront 2023: Today’s Paper
One of the more significant announcements in Nine’s Upfront came in Today’s Paper – the daily downloadable version of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers – with brands now able to digitally insert streaming video or rich media advertising including false covers and digital catalogues. This includes the ability to create digital wraparounds, clickable video set in a print product, as well as advertising that crosses between the print and digital products.
Downloads of the digital replica of the physical papers are seeing year-on-year growth of over 50% across the mastheads. Clasby said that this is a powerful proposition.
“The downloads on Monday, Friday, and Sunday is on average around 60,000. And then on Saturday, which is our highest reading day of the week, it’s between 90,000 and 150,000 downloads.”
When asked if this would take away from the value offered to print advertisers, Clasby said that it does not impact that offering at all.
“When we negotiate with current advertisers at the moment, we only negotiate on the readership of the current paper format, so we’re not enjoying the current downloads of Today’s Paper offerings. It’s completely separate, it’s not counted at all. At the moment, they’re enjoying it for free, it’s definitely an option for them to add fries with that and get their ads rolled into Today’s Paper publications as well. Otherwise, it will be an additional sell for us to also go after new clients into the publishing landscape – it’s obviously quite an affordable proposition for them to trial their publications and develop new clients in the publishing landscape.”
Stephenson said that the new Today’s Paper advertising won’t be programmatic at launch as they focus on a quality roll-out, but that audio programmatic is here.
“Today’s Paper will be hand sold. But what we are announcing from an audio point of view is that we are building the ability to trade those programmatically. We are all connected, we’ve got first-party data, and we’re connected to all the demand sources. We’ve got an audience that is growing and increasingly more valuable. We’ve got a good track record of launching products – but this is not a sprint, we’re going to launch slowly. We won’t go to a full digital ad insertion in anything straightaway, it needs to be an excellent consumer experience and an excellent advertising experience. So we will build as the demand for it builds, and we have the capability today, but we won’t launch all of it at the same time.”
Nine Upfront 2023: Brisbane Times
Nine has also announced an expansion of the Brisbane Times masthead in 2023, in a major investment in local news in South-East Queensland.
When asked what this meant for WA Today, Stephenson said that Nine is still heavily invested in the property.
“We continue obviously to invest in WA Today. We have the same asset mix over there. We have 6PR, WA today and Nine all working together. Our strategy is around making sure that when we do something, we do it properly, and we do it right. Not biting off more than we can chew in one step. We’ve got high expectations for what we can do in Brisbane, giving Queensland an alternative to its current publishing proposition. And if it delivers what we expect it will, then we’ll continue to invest in other other parts of our ecosystem.”
See Mediaweek‘s full coverage of Nine’s Upfront here.