Nine Entertainment has revealed it has entered into an agreement with Tennis Australia for rights to all premium tennis played in Australia for the 2020 to 2024 seasons. Under the terms of this agreement, Nine has acquired the exclusive live rights (including free-to-air, subscription television, streaming, mobile and social media), together with extensive catch-up rights, to the Australian Open as well as the lead-up tournaments around Australia – the Hopman Cup and the Brisbane, Sydney and Hobart Internationals.
The annual cash cost over the five-year period is $60m.
Hugh Marks, CEO of Nine, said “We are very excited to have secured the rights to premium Australian tennis, particularly the Australian Open. The timing of tennis and the audience demographics are a perfect fit with Nine’s audiences and advertisers. We are impressed with Tennis Australia’s approach to further growing both its events, particularly the Australian Open, and the associated broadcast proposition in Australia, and are excited to be part of that future.”
“This is a landmark deal for Tennis Australia and we are very excited to partner with the Nine Network for the next five years,” Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said.
“Four years ago, we brought the host broadcast for all our events in-house and this success has allowed us to unlock even more value in our domestic media rights. Our objective going into this process was a growth plan for exposure across the key planks of both tennis and non-tennis content, and the Nine offer best met these requirements. Nine’s commitment to additional tennis programming year-round was also aligned to our strategy.
“There are components within this new agreement that we believe will help us further grow our events and the sport of tennis.”
Seven declined to comment when approached this afternoon.
Top photo: Roger Federer at the Australian Open (Neale Cousland / Shutterstock)