Ten thwarted by Seven in battle for tennis broadcast rights

June 14, 2013 10:04

The Seven Network has this morning confirm it has retained the broadcast rights to the tennis for a further five years.

In a deal thought to be worth around $30m a year Seven will continue to broadcast the Australian Open, despite strong interest from the rival Ten network.

As recently as last week Ten CEO Hamish McLennan told the Mumbrella360 conference: “Tennis Australia are in exclusive negotiations with Channel Seven at the moment but I think they would be mad not to put it to the open market.”

“If you look at what happened with cricket the rights went up . . . [by 118 per cent] so unless they test the market they don’t know how monetiseable it is,” he said.

Be a member to keep reading

Join Mumbrella Pro to access the Mumbrella archive and read our premium analysis of everything under the media and marketing umbrella.

Become a member

Nic Christensen

Nic Christensen worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2016, in roles including deputy editor and media & technology editor. He is former media writer for The Australian and has also worked as a reporter for The Daily Telegraph and senior producer for Radio 2GB.

Topics