Australia's Channel 9 sees AO ratings drop in tough fortnight for the broadcaster

Australia's Channel 9 is reeling after damning viewing figures for the fortnight of the Australian Open - just months after the broadcaster spent half a billion dollars on a new deal.

Nine splashed $500 million to extend their Australian Open deal until 2030, but new figures published following the conclusion of the tournament show viewership is way down on the previous year.

The host broadcaster's problems started from as early as the first day, with the opening night session pulling in an average 357,000 viewers across the Australian five city metro regions.

This was more than 100,000 less than Channel 7’s Home and Away. The opening night peaked at just 539,000 viewers.

Those figures pale in comparison to 2022, when a staggering 635,000 averages viewers tuned in across the metro regions with a peak of 886,000 viewers.

Even for the women's singles final and men's doubles final last Saturday night, the ratings peaked at 1.437 million viewers, way down on the numbers for the same events a year previous, that had a peak of 4.261 million viewers.

Big names fail to show up

There are clearly a number of contributing factors to the sudden and shock decline in the numbers in just 12 short months, not least the decimation of the leading cast of actors for the fortnight of sporting drama.

A year ago, home favourite Ash Barty was the main draw, becoming the first local player in 44 years to win the event in Melbourne.

Her absence following retirement was always going to leave a big gap in the market.

One such player hoping to fill that space was Nick Kyrgios, fresh of the back of his finest season as a tour professional in 2022.

Love him or hate him, Kyrgios is one of the biggest box office draws of both the men's and women's tours, and his late withdrawal just hours before the competition started would have left Nine bosses cursing their luck.

That meant no realistic singles hope for Aussie's but also no chance of the return of 'Special K', the double's partnership of Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis that captured the imagination of the public when claiming the men's doubles last year.

Throw into that Carlos Alcaraz's failing to be fit enough to compete, and the narrative for the men's draw quickly became, not for the first time, could anyone silence Nadal and Djokovic.

The answer; yes but no.

Nadal's early exit meant a massive viewing ticket was gone and, despite his undoubted greatness and talent, Novak Djokovic just isn't as good at winning viewing figures as he is at winning tennis points.

Maybe it's because he's too good, as round-by-round, as big names and seeds fell around him, Djokovic got stronger, winning in straight sets with the loss of just a handful of games in each match. His march to the title almost became inevitable.

What it leaves is a lot of questions as to where tennis goes from here, and a snapshot into life after the Big Three.