Owned by media group
Nine Entertainment,
the Nine Network is
one of Australia's top-
rating commercial TV
networks. Built on
news, current affairs
and sport, it is the last
of the FTA networks to
have sport all year
round – staples are
rugby and cricket.
Under Head of Sport
Steve Crawley the
channel has been
setting benchmarks
for sports
broadcasters the
world over. We asked
him about his
approach
started in sport on the
Monday after I left school
and itʹs all I have ever
known. I joined Nine at the
end of 2002 for the simple
reason that they were the
best, still are. As Head of
Sport, I work with the lawyers
handling the rights but my main
task is to make TV. I work with the
commentators, with the cameramen,
with the directors. I try to surround
myself with the very best people.
The Nine Network was
established by the late Kerry Packer
who was very aggressive and very
passionate about sport. For
Australians sport is a very
important part of their lives ‐ we
have got a proud history at
Olympic Games, in rugby union,
rugby league, swimming and
tennis. David Hill, our Head of
Sport in the late 1970ʹs, laid the
foundations for Nineʹs ʹWide World
of Sportsʹ ‐ we continued on.
For free‐to‐air TV the Nine
Network has been the leader in our
country at major sporting events,
like the Rugby League, football
Grand Final and our State of Origin
series which takes place in June and
attracts an audience of around 4m.
We are the last of the FTA networks
to have sport all year round, rugby
league is our staple through winter,
and we have had cricket for 37
years running through summer.
The Boxing Day Test will attract an
audience of around 3m. Pay‐TV has
changed the landscape though in
this country. Fox have bid and been
successful with many rights, but
the government has continued with
an anti‐siphoning list to ensure that
major sporting events are still
shown on FTA.
Is domestic sport the biggest
driver?
Absolutely. It has always been the
case that our main sports are loss
leaders in that we pay more than
we get back. But we have been able
to do that because of how strongly
they rate and how we can promote
other shows into that space. So it
makes us stronger across the board.
But you have to wonder how long
sporting rights can keep going up
THE CHANNEL
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ISSUE 2 2013
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21
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