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Nine Network in Australia to be snatching Olympic rights from incumbent Seven for over 300 mil, per Sydney Morning Herald:

Nine Entertainment Co has won the race for rights to air the next wave of Olympic Games events, including Brisbane 2032, after submitting a higher bid than incumbent broadcaster Seven West Media.

This might sound like a bad thing, but actually it’s quite a good thing for Nine. Given they are the exclusive rights holders from Paris 2024 up to their own Brisbane 2032 games, this is going to be a big booster for the network and the group. Not only they finally back at number 1 in the ratings after years of instability and low rated shows, but they have amassed a very good amount of sports rights, including the Australian Open and live cricket (which might lose to Network 10 and Paramount+ from 2023).

Last time Nine had the rights, its coverage was decently produced, with on-site presence, two studios in Sydney and on-site, coverage filling almost all of the schedule (except the prized early evening slot) and experimenting with new tech, including a test 3D transmission in London. This effort received good ratings, additionally buoyed by promoting their new shows for their specific seasons, however, it was heavily contrainst by Foxtel’s having subscription and streaming rights, which led to both broadcasters to lose money and offload the Sochi rights (later acquired by 10). In contrast, Seven’s production values have gotten worse, far from these of Sydney 2000, as the bulk of the coverage has been produced remotely, with little presence and lack of commentary on-site, and the studio hosts have been strongly criticized for lacking experience with the event. We’ll see if Nine will be able to live up to the Sydney 2000 production legacy by eventually pouring resources in this event.

Additionally, Nine has a larger platform reach than Seven, as they have the network, their digital subchannels (9Go, 9Gem, 9Life and 9Rush), their AVOD platform 9Now, their radio network (talk radio and Greatest Hits), the former Fairfax newspapers and a very competitive SVOD streamer, Stan. In comparison, Seven only has the network, the digital subchannels, 7plus and The West Australian newspaper. Nine’s larger reach can boost the audience and drive through platforms to make people get the right content. For example, exclusive events could be placed through Stan to drive audiences to subscribe to ad-free content, including these exclusives (like NBC has done with Peacock for their coverage of the Games recently).

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Another rights announcement came earlier this week, as Viacom18's sports division Sports18 has snatched the rights for coverage in the Indian subcontinent. Worth noting this is only for Paris 2024, and they have to resell rights to other FTA channels to ensure they get live coverage.

olympics.com