Nine and WIN have announced the signing of a new regional television affiliation agreement, replacing its previous deal with SCA.
Under this new agreement, which will commence on 1 July 2021, WIN will pay an affiliation fee of around 50% of its regional advertising revenue to Nine and provide airtime to Nine to allow the promotion of Nine’s assets across WIN’s television and radio network.
As part of the arrangements between Nine and WIN, WIN will also provide a sales representation service for Nine in Northern NSW and Darwin for a period of time.
Following the announcement, SCA has released a statement approved for release by CEO and managing director Grant Blackley:
SCA has been informed this morning by Nine Entertainment Co that Nine will not extend the current regional television affiliation agreement beyond its current expiry on 30 June 2021. Nine has also announced its decision to ASX this morning.
SCA has broadcast Nine’s metropolitan free-to-air television content into the three aggregated markets of regional Queensland, Southern NSW and regional Victoria since 1 July 2016. The complementary arrangements under which SCA also provides national and local sales representation for Nine’s NBN television station in the fourth aggregated market of Northern NSW will also come to an end on 30 June 2021.
SCA’s television business continues to include program supply agreements with Seven West Media covering the Tasmania, Darwin, Central and Spencer Gulf markets until 30 June 2022 under which 20% of SCA’s total television advertising revenue is generated. SCA also broadcasts Nine and Ten programming in Spencer Gulf.
SCA’s sales teams have consistently generated excellent sales outcomes for its partners. Over the five year period of the Nine affiliation, SCA’s sales power ratio (converting ratings to revenue) in the three aggregated markets improved by nine percentage points from 1.03 in 1H FY2017 to 1.12 in 1H FY20211. Commencing local sales representation of NBN in Northern NSW from 1 May 2018, SCA grew NBN’s local power ratio from 0.86 in H2 FY2018 to 1.09 in 1H FY2021. SCA is proud of this market-leading sales performance over the period of the Nine affiliation which has generated strong commercial returns for both SCA and Nine.
For more than 20 years before entering the Nine affiliation in 2016, SCA was affiliated with Network 10 in SCA’s licence areas. SCA looks forward to discussions in coming weeks with Network 10 to establish a new affiliation in regional Queensland, Southern NSW and regional Victoria from 1 July 2021 with marketing support from SCA’s extensive network of regional radio stations and continuing strong sales performance.