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Tennis coverage a boon for Seven

Novak Djokovic stretches out for a return to Milos Raonic of Canada during their quarterfinal match at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Picture: AP.

Seven Network’s online broadcast of every single Australian Open match has set a new benchmark for giving fans the coverage of major sporting events they demand, Seven West Media’s chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette told M&M this week.

In a world first, Seven provided blanket coverage of the Australian Open on two free-to-air networks and online, ensuring even less popular matches away from centre court could be viewed.

It could change the way major international sporting events, like the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games, are televised.

“Without question when the broadcaster/rights holder and the sport work together for a common goal, it is by far the most effective outcome for everybody, with the fan the ultimate winner,” Mr Burnette said.

“The sport gains more coverage, which can only be great for them on a whole lot of aspects in growing the sport, growing the fan base, and growing the sponsorship support base.”

He said this year’s Australian Open had proven the strategy worked. “Our offering to the tennis fan was to give them all the tennis, when they wanted it, wherever they wanted it,” he said.

“The result was more people watching tennis than before.”

The 7SPORTapp was the top ranking free sports app for iPad throughout the open, with more than 225,000 downloads.

“There has been and always will be a huge amount to learn from any new initiative,” Mr Burnette said. “This was a global first so extra learnings were to be had.

“We will apply those around delivery, look and feel and messages to make next year, and the Olympics, an even more memorable and compelling viewer experience.”

He confirmed that tennis fans had tuned in to watch less high-profile matches.

“Every year we get feedback from fans asking for more, or being disappointed about missing a match; this year we had no such complaints,” he said.

The strategy was good news for advertisers, too.

“The advertiser objective is to reach as many people as possible no matter where they are,” Mr Burnette said.

“The tennis delivered exactly that. The take-up was fantastic and the response to seeing it happen live equally so.”