Nine takes Olympics TV rights from Seven as cricket mulls its future

Seven and Nine were joint broadcasters of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, which was the first to be televised in Australia. Since then, Seven has been the preeminent broadcaster, televising events in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.

Seven briefly lost the rights from 2010 to 2014 to rival broadcasters Nine, Network Ten (now owned by Paramount) and Foxtel before signing a deal from 2016 to 2020. It is unclear if Ten’s owner Paramount ended up submitting a bid. Paramount sources previously said they weren’t interested in securing a long-term deal given the media market is constantly changing and audiences are increasingly watching sports content online.

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The IOC was the last major sporting body to try and secure a lucrative broadcast deal from this market in the current cycle and the arrival of its key broadcast executives coincided with negotiations between Cricket Australia and broadcasters about its new deal.

Paramount and Network 10 were in the box seat to win CA’s media rights auction because they have offered the largest sum of money, but multiple media and cricket sources have said CA is hesitant to leave incumbent partner Foxtel, whose parent company News Corp owns The Australian, The Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph.

Seven and Foxtel have so far been unable to match Paramount’s $1.5 billion offer for rights to Test matches, one-day internationals, T20s, the Big Bash League and the Women’s Big Bash League. And with most media executives now on holidays, it is unlikely a deal will be done before Christmas.

The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday Nine had held talks with Foxtel about a potential tie-up, but any deal between the two companies is highly unlikely. The main reason for this is Nine’s bid for the cricket was not solely for free-to-air rights to Tests – it included games for its streaming service Stan, which competes with Foxtel for subscribers.

Upcoming deals with CA and the IOC are complicated by several other highly lucrative agreements, including Nine’s extended agreement with Tennis Australia for more than $400 million, and Seven and Foxtel’s historic $4.5 billion AFL deal in September.

HBO owner WarnerMedia is also in the market weighing up what to do with its content, which includes hit shows such as House of Dragon, Succession and White Lotus. Its existing deal with Foxtel expires next year.