World No.1 Ash Barty’s shock retirement set to cost Tennis Australia tens of millions of dollars in next broadcast deal

Ash Barty’s sudden retirement could cost Tennis Australia tens of millions of dollars annually in its next broadcast deal, a leading sports television rights specialist says. The world No.1 and three-time grand slam singles champion’s shock announcement on Wednesday sent shockwaves through the tennis world but may have major financial repercussions. Barty’s drought-busting Australian Open triumph in January culminated in her playing in the most-watched women’s final since the current TV ratings system started keeping records in 1999. Her title victory over American Danielle Collins peaked an an extraordinary TV audience of 4.2 million and the ratings remained high for Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis’ all-Australian doubles final. Kyrgios and Kokkinakis, dubbed the ‘Special Ks’, drew a record doubles audience of 3.1 million, with Global Media and Sports managing director Colin Smith calling it “the perfect storm”. Tennis Australia’s (TA) current broadcast deal with Nine, which expires in 2024, is $300m across five years but there were suggestions in the Australian Open aftermath that a $100m-a-year deal could be possible. That was based not only on Barty’s presence but also Channel 7’s potential challenge to grab the rights back. Even if that projection was too lofty, TA would almost certainly have expected a significant upgrade on the current agreement, but Smith told News Corp that might no longer be possible. The sports rights expert said the most likely scenario was closer to status quo with Barty retiring and all-time greats Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic likely to follow suit in the near future. “Somebody is not going to be paying mega dollars, or what they would have if Ash was continuing,” Smith said. “At the end of the day, sports have to pay their way and we have two sports in Australia that are must watch and must have – AFL and NRL. “Tennis is a really nice lead-in (to promote new seasons), because it’s got a true halo effect to it, but we’re not talking about premiums of another $40-million-a-year at all. “If I’m going to be involved in a broadcast war for tennis and therefore pay a super-premium; I’m much less likely to when I’ve just lost my competitive advantage for guaranteeing a TV audience in Ash Barty.” Tennis’ trump card is how badly summer rival cricket’s Big Bash is struggling. A News Corp report in February revealed the Twenty20 competition had lost, on average, 450,000 viewers per game since 2016 and declined for six consecutive years. But the issue for TA is there isn’t an obvious grand slam singles title contender on the horizon among Australia’s remaining crop, especially with marketing dream Kyrgios effectively a part-time player. “The problem is global. It’s not like there’s a ‘Who’s the new Ash Barty?’ who is going to be such a superb talent, so attractive and a non-controversial person,” Smith said. “There’s nobody coming up in the women’s system who is going to do that. “Then on the men’s side, once you take out Djokovic, Nadal and Federer, the superstars are gone. (Daniil) Medvedev is certainly there but he’s not of the same sort of ilk.”