With the Olympics wrapping up this weekend, Nine CEO Mike Sneesby has told staff that advertising revenue secured for the business’ Paris Olympic and Paralympic coverage has lifted from $135 million to “more than $140 million as our sponsors and advertising partners have embraced Nine’s platforms and coverage.”
Last month, Sneesby promised that the company’s eight-year bet on the Olympic and Paralympic Games was paying off, with the company’s “torch” and “flame” sponsorship packages – valued at $12.5 million and $10.5 million respectively – at capacity.
See also: Nine will bank $135 million in ad revenue for Paris Olympics: Mike Sneesby
In the same note to staff seen by Mediaweek, Sneesby also highlighted some of the “record breaking audience results being achieved” during the Olympic period.
“We made a commitment to put our audiences and advertisers first with Olympics Games and Paralympic Games coverage of an unprecedented quality and scale and we are delivering on that promise,” he wrote.
Broadcast and 9Now coverage combined has “reached an incredible 10.5m average daily viewers,” and the first week of the games “saw 9Now record the highest weekly BVOD reach of any broadcaster since VOZ commenced (Dec 2021) – reaching over 6m viewers,” Sneesby said.
He added that the Olympics coverage has become the most read topic across Nine’s mastheads and “has driven a significant increase” in subscribers.
For Nine Radio, Sneesby reports audio streaming audiences up more than 25% year on year. Since the first day of competition, session starts across Nine Radio’s digital devices have jumped 48%, with the key hours of 4am-7am showing the most significant uplift. Total listening hours have increased by 12%, and Nine’s exclusive Olympic podcast, The Olympics Today, has seen a 17% increase in podcast listeners.
Stan Sport has also seen “record viewing numbers and subscribers.”
Last week – just a few hours after returning to work following a five-day strike coinciding with the Olympics beginning – Nine journalists accepted an in principle enterprise bargaining agreement offer from management.
Journalists will receive a pay rise of 11.5% over three years, broken into 4%, 3.75%, and 3.75% lifts each year. This is an improvement on the rejected offer that triggered the strike action, which was reportedly 3.5% per year.
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Top image: Mike Sneesby