I’ve just seen the 2022 Nine’s Wide World of Sports promo and it’s great to have swimming back on the network in a long time since 2008, although they did show a bit of that sport when they had the rights to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London a decade ago but this time it’s only the FINA World Swimming Championships that will be held in Fukuoka, Japan in mid-late May this year.
It’ll be interesting to see if they will go with the World Feed commentary or use their own voices but with Ray Warren, who was their last play-by-play voice for swimming during the 1990-2000s, also called the London Olympics there & now at age 78, I reckon Nine will only have a studio panel with world feed commentary for this event especially when Rabs prefers to call on-site & has a fear of flying as COVID is still impacting all of us for two years.
And thanks to their own paid streaming partner Stan Sport, who covered exclusive UEFA Champions League content so far this season in the first of a three-year deal, nice to see the soccer back on Nine/9Gem in simulcast with Stan ahead of this competition’s finals stage as the last time European Football aired on Free TV was back in 2017-18 with SBS.
Exciting times ahead this May for the typical sports fan fix in Australia on TV and streaming.
