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Tiger Woods to lead Nine’s sports charge

Nine has signalled that live sport is going to be a major focus for maintaining audiences, with the capture of November’s Australian Masters golf featuring Tiger Woods.  

Nine Network boss Jeffrey Browne told Mumbrella: “We are investing in big international events such as the golf, the cricket, the Rugby World Cup and the Vancouver Winter Olympics and 2012 Olympics.”

As well as live sport being a way to beat ad skipping, Browne said that the broadcast rights have an in-built business model because event sponsors often become on air sponsors. He said: “When a naming sponsor is announced for the Masters we’ll be talking to them about a broadcast package.”

He added: “Tiger Woods will drive a lot of interest from the audience. He is on fire at the moment.”

The Today show will be incorporated into Nine’s golf coverage.

Browne also predicted that Nine’s Winter Olympics coverage – shared with Fox Sports as the golf is – will also drive audiences. He said: “People might not realise that we’ve got five good medal chances. I expect the audience will be pretty credible.”

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