The Swimming Australia governing body has agreed a bumper multi-year wide ranging media rights deal with the country’s Nine Entertainment media company.
The 10-year deal will run through 2034 and will see Nine Network broadcast the entire Swimming Australia calendar of events, including the Australian Swimming Trials, Australian Short Course Championships, Australian Age Championships, and the Australian Open Championships.
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Swimming Australia brokered the deal in collaboration with the SportFive sports and media agency, which it struck a deal with last June.
Broadcasts will be shown on the major Nine Network commercial free-to-air broadcaster, as well as the 9Now streaming service, ensuring that the network dominates streaming broadcasts in Australia over the next decade.
Much of this will come through the broadcaster’s Wide World of Sports variety show, which it will use to turn the featured swimmers into familiar names for even non-swimming viewers.
The agreement runs well past both the 2028 and 2032 Olympic Games, the latter of which will be hosted in Australia, in Brisbane, with swimming set to be a major attraction based on the team’s recent success in the sport.
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By GlobalDataPrior to the Paris 2024 Olympics, Nine broadcast the Australian Olympic and Paralympic Swimming Trials, drawing 5.7 million viewers.
The broadcaster also holds the rights for the Olympics and Paralympics through Brisbane 2032, meaning it can cover two entire Olympic cycles of swimming events.
Speaking on the agreement, Swimming Australia chief executive Rob Woodhouse stated: “This landmark agreement with Nine is a pivotal moment for our sport. It brings unprecedented exposure to our national teams and to the next generation of athletes that will be household names by LA 2028 and Brisbane 2032.”
“We are always looking to enhance fan accessibility and ensure the visibility of our Dolphins inspires all Australians to be part of our swimming community.”
Nine acting chief executive Matt Stanton added: “Nine is proud to provide Swimming Australia with an unrivaled multimedia platform to showcase its sport and success for the next 10 years.”
Brent Williams, the director of sport at Nine Network, added: “This deal lays the platform for Wide World of Sports to showcase the many fiercely competitive race meets, allow viewers to follow the progress of our big-name athletes, and bring to the forefront the rising stars of swimming who will be our future Olympic champions all the way to Brisbane 2032.”
This announcement comes as Nine is reportedly in talks to purchase the Optus Sport subscription streaming platform from the telecoms giant Optus.
Should it occur, the deal would see Optus Sport merge with Nine’s existing Stan Sport offering, bringing together two major Australian sports rights portfolios.
Optus Sport is the exclusive streaming home of English soccer’s Premier League in Australia, in a lucrative deal running through the 2027-28 season, and English women’s soccer’s Women’s Super League through the current 2024-25 campaign.
Optus’ portfolio is mostly comprised of soccer rights, with Japan’s J-League, South Korea’s K League, and North America’s National Women’s Soccer League also included.
By comparison, Stan Sports’ rights portfolio is more diversified, including rugby union’s English Premiership, Rugby Championship, and SVNS, tennis’ Davis Cup, and motor racing’s Formula E, among others.
