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Motorsport

Thoughts on Nine looking to bid exclusive rights for the 2026 Supercars TV deal that could change everything with Stan Sport

by Sports Benches

The Supercars season may be over with Will Brown winning his first Drivers’ Championship for Red Bull Team Australia which is under the Triple 8 Chevy organisation but there’s still more to it off-track following a huge update regarding the sport’s next TV rights package from 2026 to at least 2030.

It’s not just Fox Sports battling hard to retaining the majority rights alongside Seven, they now officially have competition in the form of Nine/Stan Sport under Nine Entertainment Co. Should Nine win the rights, this shouldn’t be an issue with $$$ since they got Stan as their own paid streaming service that includes Stan Sport. 

They currently hold a number of other major sporting rights content with some being simulcasted on Nine that operates similarly to other Pay TV outlets like Fox Sports via Foxtel (cable/satellite) & Kayo Sports (streaming).

With scheduling though, that will be another point of area to discuss if Nine does win the rights. They would like to have all Sunday races live, keep the other six major event races live that Seven is currently doing (which was also Ten has done as a secondary broadcaster back in 2015-2020) and have nearly everything else behind a paywall. 

Most Sunday races nowadays begin closer to 4pm and Nine has the NRL on at the same time, but Supercars is indeed one of our national-level sporting leagues much like our motor racing version to our two biggest footy codes – NRL and AFL.

Sunday Afternoon NRL, for example, during the season may be on the main channel over in Queensland and New South Wales with all other states being on 9Gem. However, it’s still better than nothing and sure Nine would at least have some sport to play with for the non-NRL states in Supercars as a lead-in for their 6pm news bulletin. 

Remember the Supercars races are held every couple of weeks across 12-13 times throughout the year as yes, the viewership and fan base may not be the same as once was before. Although you can say that ad-free racing proved to be the difference over the last decade & that won’t change anytime soon, but it would be better though if Supercars at least have every Sunday race live for free on top of six full event races every year – that’s the bare minimum we could ask for.

I’m not going to pick a winner out of this but whoever has the most money and most importantly, the appropriate reach they could offer to our viewership would be enough for Supercars to lock in that next TV rights deal.

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Motorsport

Supercars: Thoughts on a few familiar faces back on TV at the 2024 Bathurst 1000 with some free-to-air ideas on next TV rights deal

by Sports Benches

The 2024 Bathurst 1000 race weekend have seen some familiar media faces back on TV with the likes of Molly Taylor, Chris Stubbs & Aaron Noonan at least for Seven who covered this race as Supercars’s free-to-air partner alongside Fox Sports. 

We all know Stubbsy has just came back from a huge year himself covering the Grand Slam Daily Tennis shows and also reported the recent Summer Olympics in Paris for Stan Sport as he will continue to do so next year starting with the Australian Open at Melbourne Park since he’s freelance. Plus, Molly came back to TV duties after all since the SpeedSeries season finale event nearly a year ago at this same track also for Stan & 9Gem before Seven regained the rights at season’s end. She wasn’t required to stay on alongside Matt White & Fabian Coulthard, having done some rallying/rallycross driving work since then.

It’s also nice to see her contribute to some pit reporting on the shared broadcast commentary feed at the Mountain alongside Greg Murphy, Mark Larkham, Chad Neylon and Riana Crehan.

Then there’s always versatile sports hosts in Mel McLaughlin & Emma Freedman once a year at our greatest race when Mark Beretta and Jack Perkins continues to steer the ship whenever Seven is allowed to air select Supercars events live every year with everything else being highlights (usually six out of 12/13).

Next Supercars TV rights deal from 2026-2030

Now even though we will see a three-race Finals series for the first time late next year – similar to NASCAR’s Playoffs albeit a much simpler & shorter version, the next TV rights contract from 2026 is still up for grabs that should take another few years to at least around the end of 2030 – coinciding with the arrival of Toyota as the 3rd Supercars manufacturer using Supras.

First of all, the paid TV package will always stay as Supercars’s primary financial source since Seven previously left following the 2014 season as an exclusive broadcaster before Seven came back to replace Network 10 a few years ago as the competition’s secondary TV partner to Fox Sports. There’s also the benefit of watching every event live and on-demand without ads during racing but when it comes to the free-to-air part, it still needs some work. Okay, there’s no way we will get to see all Supercars races live again like it once was a long time ago. It would be great though if they had at least all other Sunday afternoon Supercars-only races live on top of six full event major event races every year – similar to NRL and AFL every week with 3/4 weekly games on free-to-air while the rest being via Pay TV.

Whoever retains or takes over the rights remains to be seen, but hopefully Supercars can get a bit more free-to-air content that is well balanced likewise with the other major sporting codes while still maintaining Pay TV as the competition’s primary source – it should be a win/win for all motorsport people involved here at the end of the day.

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Motorsport

New SpeedSeries look for 2024 as they return this weekend at Sandown Raceway under Motorsport Australia with Seven back onboard in place of Nine & Stan Sport 

by Sports Benches

SpeedSeries has returned for another new season that started today at Sandown Raceway in Victoria where a few categories have came back, while some have came into the fold for the first time on what is going to be a huge year ahead – including the Bathurst 6 Hour during the Easter long weekend, as well as the TCR World Tour drivers coming back again to take on the Aussie field this November at Eastern Creek (Sydney Motorsports Park) & Bathurst (Mount Panorama Circuit) respectively.

But there’s also a change of broadcaster too as Seven has returned replacing Nine & Stan Sport as their broadcast partner for the next two years. Yes, the shift of having most of the stuff behind the paywall including elements of free-to-air content didn’t work out for the majority. Although if they did add the three-hour Sunday races on top of the three-hour Saturday coverage including the Bathurst 6 Hour race, then it wouldn’t be bad. However, it was the change of hands from Australian Racing Group back to Motorsport Australia that led to Nine/Stan leaving the series also after two years when ARG brought them here exactly two years ago. Before that, Seven first broadcasted the competition in 2021 (the 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID) before the split paywall experiment while SBS aired the inaugural TCR Australia season for one year in 2019.

Now most of the broadcast graphics including the leaderboard haven’t changed much except the SpeedSeries logo being moved from the bottom right to the bottom left. Same goes with the broadcast team like Chris Stubbs (he will still be on Stan’s grand slam Tennis coverage throughout the year as he’s freelance), Matt Naulty, Richard Craill & Greg Rust. Although one new face have now come onboard front & centre in Sarah Burt as a few will be moved on. We won’t be seeing ex-Supercars driver Fabian Coulthard & Rally legend Molly Taylor back again. So does Matt White, who not only appeared on Nine for the first time over the last two years as host after he spent so much time between Seven & Ten, but he also returned to commentary for a bit towards the end of last season in the Trans-Am alongside Naulty due to Craill having to focus on the TCR World Tour’s Australian leg with Rust and Paul Jeffrey.

Another thing we won’t have to put up is Nine’s inability on not wanting to use the Wide World of Sports watermark as seen with the SpeedSeries’ free-to-air broadcasts last year where Seven & even Ten and SBS has presented it so nicely when it comes to their motorsports coverage. But I doubt it won’t go away anytime soon since they barely broadcast any racing until Stan Sport was born back in 2021 when Nine will get to air a bit again Live during the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June with parent streaming subsdiary Stan still holding the rights there alongside IndyCar, Formula E, Rallying, Motocross & the World Endurance Championship. So there goes your SpeedSeries broadcast guide this season other than Supercars being on Seven for half the time as well as Fox Sports who holds all of the races including Formula 1, NASCAR & MotoGP & both Australian Grand Prix events will stay on Network 10. And that is that for now as we wish SpeedSeries all the best going forward in growing the competition towards better milestones for Motorsport in Australia.

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