Nine kicks goals as 1 million-plus watch Premier League’s Tottenham Spurs topple Manchester City

Next week’s west London derby between Fulham and Chelsea will be the final game shown on free-to-air, with Nine hoping the exposure of its new deal on its main commercial channel will translate to sign-ups to the Stan Sport package. The rest of the season will be available to view only on Stan Sport.

As part of its deal with Optus, Nine also acquired the rights to the FA Cup, England’s top knock-out cup competition. A spokesperson said the company would consider placing some select matches from the FA Cup on free-to-air and its free streaming platform, 9Now.

For comparison, Nine’s NRL post-game show had an audience reach of 502,000.

The rollout of the Premier League across Nine’s platforms had been a “full-scale offensive play”, Nine chief Matt Stanton said on Sunday, with the first two weeks of action having reached more than 2 million Australians in total.

“What we are seeing talks exactly to what we know makes Nine such a compelling prospect for big sports and major competitions. The Premier League has never experienced anything like this in Australia in terms of interest, engagement and viewership in the build-up to the season and now the rounds themselves,” Stanton said.

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Using the NRL as a springboard for the Premier League on Stan, alongside the resurgent Wallabies, would only help grow fandom for football in Australia, added Nine’s broadcast and streaming boss, Amanda Laing.

Nine is due to deliver its full-year results on Wednesday. Stanton is expected shed some light on the strategy for the company after the planned completion of the sale of Domain to American digital real estate listings company CoStar this week.

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