2017-2021 Nine & Telstra Media Rights Deal

Netball Australia signed a 5 year deal from 2016 with the Nine Network and Telstra.[1][2]

Under the broadcasting agreement:

There will be 60 games played in Australia’s new national netball league season from February, with two live games and two delayed games to be played as a prime-time, Saturday night double-header on the Nine Network (free-to-air)
The remaining two live games will be available on Telstra TV
All games will be broadcast live through the Netball Live app
The Fast5 Netball World Series, to be held in Melbourne this October, will be the first event to be broadcast under the new agreements with Nine and Telstra
Fans will be able to watch all Australian netball content live on the big screen – including the new national netball league, Fast5 World Netball Series and Diamonds international test matches
Nine will also split the revenue for broadcast television advertising spots sold during the games.

Nine and Telstra will cover the costs of broadcast production

Nine and Telstra will also have rights to Netball Australia’s international matches, the Fast5 competition, the Constellation Cup between Australia and New Zealand as well as the Quad Series between Australia, NZ, South Africa and England.

SuperNetball Television Ratings

2017 SuperNetball Season

The 2017 Suncorp Super Netball Season was broadcast on Nine, Telstra TV and the Netball Live Official app.

In just its first series, the league has grown its free-to-air television audience by more than 40%.[3]

Most-watched game: 308,000 peak TV audience for Vixens v Magpies, opening round on 18 February
43% more viewers tuned into Super Netball on Saturday nights on GEM, than did to ANZ Championship fixtures across 2016.
An average 106,000 viewers per match nationally [total metropolitan and regional viewers] compared to 74,000 viewers nationally last year in the regular season.

2018 SuperNetball Season

The 2018 Suncorp Super Netball Season was broadcast on Nine, Telstra TV and the Netball Live Official app.

Nine’s coverage of the Suncorp Super Netball competition reached a huge audience for the Grand Final nailbiter between West Coast Fever and Sunshine Coast Lightning.[4]

The broadcast reached 1.070 million viewers nationally on Nine as the Lightning edged out the Fever 62-59 to retain the title they won in 2017.

Across the entire season, a total of over 6.733 million viewers tuned in to at least part of any match, with a match average of 140,000 viewers – an increase of 25.9 per cent on last year. Suncorp Super Netball also increased in average-viewer numbers across all key demographics, with People 25-54 up 19.2 per cent, People 16-39 up 4.0 per cent, and TGS (Total Grocery Shopper) + Child going up 22.8 per cent.

9Now streaming also secured impressive numbers, with over 377,000 live minutes viewed of the Grand Final, up 155 per cent on last year and a total of 18 million minutes viewed across the entire netball series. Live minutes viewed more than trebled this season.

2019 SuperNetball Season

The 2019 Suncorp Super Netball Season was broadcast on Nine, Telstra TV and the Netball Live Official app.

Over 900,000 people who tuned in during the Super Netball Grand Final, between the NSW Swifts and Sunshine Coast Lightning with a national peak audience of 406,000 and a national average audience of 271,000 who saw the Swifts claim the title, 64-47.[5]

This was a strong finish to a strong year for the competition which saw a two percent rise across the competitions TV viewership with a total of 5.939 million viewers who watched a part of one match. The 2019 season averaged 135,980 viewers (includes regional) per match.

Some other highlights include:

Increased average-viewer numbers across the 25-54 demographic, up 13.4 per cent in the 5 City Metro market.
Saturday and Sunday matches up year-on-year up 4.4 percent on Saturdays and 0.5 percent on Sundays.
Up 11.1 percent in Sydney, up 9.8 percent in Adelaide and 8.5 percent in Melbourne.
319,000 live stream starts across the 2019 netball competition on 9Now, up 52 percent.

2020 SuperNetball Season

The 2020 Suncorp Super Netball Season was broadcast on Nine, Telstra TV and the Netball Live Official app.

Nine’s broadcast of the Grand Final reached more than 930,000 people nationwide, making it the highest rating match of the 2020 season, with viewership within all key demographics up on the 2019 Grand Final. The grand final between the West Coast Fever and Melbourne Vixens on Sunday had a peak audience of 448,000. The average audience throughout the match was 303,659. [6]

TV viewership numbers released by Netball Australia showed fans spent an average of 16.2 per cent more time watching 2020 matches compared to last year.[7]

Fans also tuned into the match on their digital devices, with the average audience of the Grand Final on the Netball Live Official App up by 30% on last year’s finale and streaming of the match on 9now up by 37%.

Across the season, more than five million people tuned into Suncorp Super Netball broadcasts on Nine and the average time spent viewing these matches increased by 16.18% compared to last year.

Telstra’s streaming services also saw an enormous increase, with the Netball Live Official App average audience increasing by 30% on last year and viewership on Telstra TV increasing by 10%.

In total, there were almost 34 million minutes streamed across both the Netball Live Official App and Telstra TV throughout the 2020 season.

2021 SuperNetball Season

The 2021 Suncorp Super Netball Season was broadcast on Nine, Telstra TV and the Netball Live Official app.

Six million viewers tuned in to Channel 9 to watch the Suncorp Super Netball League for the 2021 season.

With many fans unable to attend matches, Channel 9 experienced a seven per cent growth across the five city metro markets — Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. This is highlighted by a 22 per cent growth in Sydney and Brisbane.[8]

In a new Saturday timeslot, the Grand Final between the NSW Swifts and GIANTS Netball attracted over 770,000 viewers.

Fans continued to consume netball content anywhere, with streaming on Telstra’s Netball Live mobile app increasing by six per cent and strong engagement on Telstra TV, which included a 43 per cent spike in video consumption during the Finals series.

2022-2026 Foxtel Media Rights Deal

Netball Australia, the Super Netball League Commission and the Foxtel Group announced a ground-breaking new five-year broadcast and digital rights deal.[9]

The new agreement, commencing in 2022, has been structured to ensure elite netball remains highly accessible to its growing base of fans throughout Australia while increasing investment in match production.

Under the innovative agreement:

Every game of every round of the Suncorp Super Netball competition will be available live and ad-break free during play on Foxtel Group platforms including Foxtel and Australia’s number one sports streaming app, Kayo Sports.
Every week, two Suncorp Super Netball games will be available live and free as part of Kayo’s recently announced Kayo Freebies, along with every match of the Suncorp Super Netball Finals Series.
Origin Australian Diamonds matches will also be available free on Kayo Freebies.
Fox Sports will undertake the production of all matches played in Australia and develop new netball magazine shows to deepen fan engagement, including a presence for shows on Kayo Freebies.