Seven won the Olympics rights before, but now, Nine is paying good money to snag the next five Olympics.
👉 Background: When it comes to Australia’s free to air TV scene, there are two clear big kahunas… Nine and Seven. Ten, ABC, SBS and others are out the back of the pack.
👉 What happened: Back in 2014, Seven won the Olympics rights for around $200 million for four games (2 x Summer and 2 x Winter). But now, Nine is paying $305 million in cash and another $10 million in free advertising to become the home of the Olympics for the next five olympics.
👉 What else: Nine reckons that swooping on the rights will give it the chance to use the Olympics as a “tent pole” to promote all of the company’s media assets. We’re talkin’ across TV, publishing, radio and Stan.
💡 In media, the “tent pole” strategy is all about using one key TV asset to support the performance of an entire TV network.
💡Interestingly, when it comes to the Olympics (and other tent pole programs), media companies often make a loss. But because it draws in a large number of views and advertisers, the network have a great opportunity to promote the rest of their less popular shows.
💡For example, for many years, Seven pinned their hopes on the Australian Open to have that effect. It advertised the living daylight out of shows like My Restaurant Rules during the Aus Open broadcast.
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