Background: Nine Entertainment is the ASX-listed media and entertainment company behind Channel Nine. It also owns the Australian Financial Review, the Sydney Morning Herald... plus its golden child: Stan and Stan Sport. Nine swooped in last year and bagged the EPL broadcast rights from Optus Sport.

What happened: Now, Nine has extended its EPL deal with Stan through the 2033-34 season, for around US$600 million (AU$830 million), paid over nearly a decade. And Stan's subscriber base has barely moved in five years, sitting around 2.2 to 2.4 million. But sport is the big growth lever, with Stan Sport helping drive 50% subscriber growth over the past year.

What else: Nine Entertainment itself is worth around $1.2 billion, so this EPL deal is worth roughly two-thirds of the entire company. Live sport gives Nine a way to bring in subscribers, keep them engaged and monetise the same audience across its wider media business.

What's the key learning?

💡 Live sport is the one place viewers will happily pay full price... and still sit through the ads. In fact, 64% of US viewers pay attention to ads during live sport, while 69% of 16-to-34-year-olds show higher ad tolerance during live programming.

💡 Sport has something most streaming content doesn't: natural ad breaks. Halftime, drinks breaks and VAR checks give advertisers built-in interruptions. A Netflix murder mystery doesn't exactly come with a convenient halftime.

💡 This makes live sport valuable twice over because it's buying an audience that will pay to watch the game and still stick around for the ads.