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Media giants face a changing battle for audiences and scale
AFL Grand Final tops NRL in viewership as Nine Entertainment grapples with leadership crisis, says James Manning
AFL Grand Final tops NRL in viewership as Nine Entertainment grapples with leadership crisis, says James Manning
– AFL Grand Final had 4.5 million viewers, slightly outperforming NRL’s 4.3 million due to timing and team location factors.
– Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery underscores pressure on traditional studios to merge for competitiveness against tech giants.
Australia’s biggest sporting events are proving that live television still has enormous pulling power, even as traditional media faces growing pressure from streaming, social media and shifting advertising dollars.
The 2026 AFL Grand Final attracted more than 4.5 million viewers, narrowly ahead of the NRL Grand Final’s 4.3 million. Scheduling and the teams involved can influence those figures, but the numbers underline the continuing commercial value of live sport.
Speaking on Media Movers with Ticker host Ahron Young, veteran media journalist James Manning says free to air networks need to work together to promote live sport as advertising increasingly moves towards platforms such as YouTube and TikTok.
The pressure is also driving consolidation internationally.
Paramount Skydance has completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, bringing major entertainment and news brands including Warner Bros., HBO, CNN and CBS under one corporate structure.
The deal highlights the race for scale as traditional media companies attempt to compete with streaming giants such as Netflix while managing significant debt.
Australia’s Nine Entertainment faces a similar challenge.
Its market value has fallen from almost A$5 billion several years ago to around A$1 billion today, as the company navigates a difficult advertising market and the complexity of operating television, streaming, publishing and digital businesses.
For Manning, the broader question is whether traditional media companies can adapt quickly enough to changing audiences while continuing to make premium content, live sport and journalism commercially sustainable.
