Wow just Wow.
Nine Entertainment breaks revenue record for State of Origin
by Max Mason
New South Wales' capitulation against Queensland has helped Nine Entertainment book record revenue for the 2017 State of Origin series.
While Queensland dominated the deciding match in Brisbane last Wednesday, one of the more competitive series in a number of years saw rugby league's State of Origin deliver record ratings.
Across metropolitan and regional audiences, game three delivered a national average audience of 3.65 million. Game one delivered 3.53 million and game two had 3.48 million.
Nine would not release its revenues numbers but did disclose revenue jumped to a record level for the three-game series and it is up 18 per cent over the past two years.
Television revenue in Australia has been in broad decline, but massive sport events remain one of the sector's biggest drawcards.
Nine director of sports sales Sam Brennan said State of Origin is successful from a revenue standpoint because its a powerful proposition for brands to connect with their customers.
"We're reluctant to make monumental changes, but I think subtle improvements have been key to the success to the commercial and content side of our broadcast," Mr Brennan said.
"When it's unmissable content like State of Origin, you're going to aggregate audiences irrespective of what's going on."
Unique sponsorship deals, such as the Telstra Tracker – a GPS player tracking system that monitors individual players and provides statistics that can be used during the broadcast, have also helped Nine boost its numbers.
New insights
"It's been a couple of years in the making getting the various parties to agree how that product was represented in the broadcast. I think once we saw it used, bringing new insights and a new point of view about the intensity of this sport, viewers responded," Mr Brennan said.
"When you start to innovate, like we have through the Telstra Tracker and through our 3D graphic package, you start to provide more opportunities for brands to play a part on the broadcast in a relevant and contextual manner."
While advertising sales for 30-second slots will remain the key focal point for broadcaster revenue, developing additional income streams will be key in a soft advertising environment.
PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts free-to-air advertising revenue will slide from $3.8 billion in 2016 to $3.2 billion by 2021. Within that free-to-air revenue number the consultancy firm estimates online video advertising revenue will rise from 2.1 per cent in 2016 to 7.4 per cent by 2021.
Nine's new NRL contract will kick in next year and it will have streaming rights to the State of Origin, which is currently does not have.
"Streaming rights is obviously going to open up a new platform for us to reach audiences through our 9Now platform," Mr Brennan said. "Part of our role as a business is distribute our content as wide as we can."
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