Reader, we’ve made it. Over the past three days, there have been five upfronts: YouTube, Amazon, Pinterest, Snapchat and finally, Nine’s in Sydney.
Nine took over the new Barangaroo-based venue the Cutaway for what it termed an “immersive upfront spectacular”. The production values were, indeed, high. There was a motorbike, a drone, a vast array of different screens, a DJ atop scaffolding, a mocked-up newspaper stand and bus stop, dancers, actors and more.
But we, and others, couldn’t find a seat. A touch ironic, perhaps, given its new ‘Sofa to Street’ positioning.
There was a broad sweep of announcements, with new content including the return of McLeod’s Daughters, a new trading platform called Neo and a partnership with CommBank IQ for better, business impact-related reporting. QMS is also changing its name to Nine Outdoor — though that came as a surprise to no one. More on those all later.
But perhaps the most eye-catching (or ear-catching) part of the presentation was CEO Matt Stanton’s punchy comments at the end announcing a new joint venture between Seven and Nine.
“I wanted to take this opportunity to help ensure a healthy and sustainable Australian media for you. Our BVOD market is worth around a billion dollars. Yet it has been widely reported that more than $300 million is lost every year to non-transparent tech fees, a bloated programmatic supply chain and an ever-increasing number of intermediaries,” Stanton told the crowd.
“So Nine and Seven are joining forces in a landmark joint venture, with others to come on board very shortly. In early 2027, we are launching a new buying solution. This solution will ensure that most of your ad dollars will go directly into working media, delivering greater transparency and supercharging both BVOD and SVOD return on investment.
“Do not underestimate the importance of this. We’re all in a very privileged position, and the decisions you make on where to put your ad dollars has an impact on our industry and our country. When you’re next asked how your business is supporting Australian media, there’s a very tactful and easy answer: go all in with Nine and demand real accountability… You’re investing in everything you see here tonight: Australian news, sport and entertainment. When you back Australian media to grow your business, you also make Australia a better place to live, work and do business.”
Stanton, it seemed, was addressing Canberra as much as he was addressing the room — much in the same way that Lyanna Kea, the creator who hosted YouTube’s upfront said that it supported 18,000 jobs in Australia and contributed $1.1 billion to the Australian economy.
“From a political point of view and as an Australian, I’m behind it,” Nick Murdoch, managing partner of indie media agency Yango, told B&T after the show.
“It’s definitely important that we have a great option here in Australia for this type of media offering. I feel like they’re getting there and they’re doing a good job. It definitely felt like he was sending a message, that’s for sure. It doesn’t mean you’re going to buy it just because it’s Australian. It’s got to stand up for the buy and the brand. But they can use the benefits of being owned and operated and the local nature of the assets to make their offering stand out or be more premium.”
Murdoch added that the Seven-Nine joint venture was very welcome news.
“If they can come together and make a network across the networks, make it brand safe, easy to buy and fuel it with good audience data, it’s got a lot of potential… If they made it special and cut out the middlemen, it could stand as a premium product.”
Rory Heffernan, CEO of Publicis Groupe-owned Atomic 212°, said that the message would have landed better if Nine had come through more consistently in the show.
“They could have had a stronger theme of supporting Australian content throughout and I think there should be a level of pride in that, rather than resentment or that things are unfair,” he told B&T.
“There’s something unique about Australian media that they should take a level of confidence in and positioning from that the streamers, the internationals can’t and that’s local production, it’s bespoke content for the market. It’s everything that Nine, Seven and the major players have been doing forever. I think they could have dialled it up.”
Sofa to Street
Nine’s other big message from the night was that it can take audiences and, therefore, brands from ‘Sofa to Street’ thanks to its acquisition of QMS, which is now more integrated through its new Neo buying platform.
Neo is set to launch in Q2 and, using AI, it will turn a brief into an “optimised, bookable media plan in minutes rather than days”. Nine said it will balance audiences, budget, reach, and value. It’s a shift from separate systems to a single, connected environment where “inventory, audiences, and investment are optimised dynamically across Nine’s entire ecosystem”.
It will also integrate 22 million verified single user IDs into the platform and work with CommBank iQ to transparent, campaign-level attribution across spend of any size — allowing marketers and agencies to track real sales uplift, category spend, and share of wallet. Its 9tribes audience segmentation data is also plugged into what were QMS’ digital out of home screens.
Nine has also partnered with Azira to track footfall traffic, AdGile for web and app visitation and brand metrics. These, it said, will provide validated, closed-loop ROI reporting embedded directly within Nine Neo.
“Historically, local media owners have reserved quality outcomes reporting for big-budget sponsorships and left impression-level campaign attribution to digital platforms,” said Nick Young, Nine’s executive director of advanced trading and digital commercialisation.
“Genuine outcomes-based reporting means having honest conversations. Knowing what
worked, and more importantly what didn’t, gives brands an immediate competitive advantage. We aren’t asking clients to guess their return on investment; we are proving it.”
“Neo was interesting,” Elizabeth Baker, Zenith’s chief investment officer, told B&T.
“As an industry, we certainly need simpler workflows… It’s attractive to think about one brief, one proposal. It sounds like it could be really valuable. But I don’t know how it works, how transparent the optimisation is, I don’t know how much control we would retain… It’s not just simplification, the quality needs to be maintained.
“Everyone’s looking at how AI can improve speed and accuracy. That wasn’t unexpected. Speed’s not the same as quality, though. The value depends on the inputs, how it’s optimised and whether the recommendation reflects the client’s objectives, rather than just being optimised around the inventory available.”
Justin Arlt, Wavemaker’s national head of investment, concurred.
“I think it looks very cool. Simplification is something that we all want. Marketers are having more and more complex problems [to solve]. If we can simplify the planning and buying, I think it’s a massive win for everyone,” he told B&T.
“It made a lot of sense,” said Murdoch.
“A lot of the suppliers are talking about being easier to buy… Because Nine has so many platforms and mediums, it would be helpful when planning to understand where your audience is. If it’s fuelled by audience insights and then you can get feedback on the target audience as to where you’re going to find them within the Nine network, I can see that being really useful.”
Sports and Daughters
Nine’s content slate for the coming year — including across Stan and Stan Sport — is impressive. Baker said that Nine’s sport offering was its “clearest commercial strength”.
Over the coming year, Nine and Stan Sport will be the home of the 2027 Netball World Cup in Sydney. It said its efforts in women’s sport are supported by a 365-day calendar of women’s sport — spanning the Ashes, rugby union, NRLW, tennis, swimming, basketball, athletics, and football. Advertisers can sponsor specific pinnacle events or partner with women’s sport year-round.
Its 10-month coverage of football, across the Premier League, UEFA Champions League,
Europa League and Emirates FA Cup also offer significant opportunities for brands. It has also joined as a partner for the NBL and will feature two marquee weekly games live and free on Channel 9 and 9Now, plus the Finals, alongside the WNBL.
The Men’s and Women’s Ashes in England will be on Channel 9, 9Now, publishing, Stan Sport, social and out of home. Meanwhile, the Australian Open returns as part of Channel 9/9Now and Stan Sport’s complete Grand Slam coverage (AO, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and US Open).
The Rugby World Cup will also be on Nine, with 24 nations competing over 52 matches, and six weeks across seven host cities on Channel 9 and 9Now and on Stan Sport.
New entertainment content includes a return of McLeod’s Daughters, 25 years since the first series launched. There will be two new Original Australian dramas: Slander starring Rachel Griffiths and Stuck Up & Stupid, based on the BookTok bestseller
Academy Award nominee Jacki Weaver joins the cast of the Stan Original Two Birds. Hamish Blake joins Stan to lead new series Unskilled Adult, premiering on 1 November.
The Block has expanded with a new spin-off following the success of the Married At First Sight spin-off, After the Dinner Party, as is Love Island Australia: Unseen. Uncut.
It said eight Stan Originals still to premiere in 2026 and 2027, including Careless, Black Snow S3 and Revealed – Into the Night.
Nine has also landed global content including the Baywatch reboot, heart-in-mouth drama The Siege, spy series The Interrogator, thriller series Honey, and the tender, eight-part love story You Are Here.
Other global acquisitions yet to premiere include Outlander: Blood of My Blood S2, American Hostage, Kill Jackie, Crystal Lake, The Good Daughter and The Hunting Wives S2.
One of the more intriguing announcements regarding Nine’s content was the way its Publishing would be amplified across the QMS digital network and more direct commercial integrations into TV news segments. Dedicated commercial teams will also service dedicated areas of content, or “audience passions”, rather than particular channels. This change is expected to come to market for 2027 media planning.
“Travel is a great example of where this model comes together,” said Ashleigh Thomas Nine’s commercial director – publishing sales.
“With Justine Cullen leading Traveller, dedicated commercial expertise, and the ability to extend ideas across the broader Nine ecosystem, we can build partnerships that go well beyond a standard ad placement to connect brands with Australians throughout their entire travel journey.
“You aren’t just placing an ad around our content, you are stepping directly inside the conversations, communities, and experiences that shape Australian culture every single day.”
Shop Today, meanwhile, is an Australian-first content-to-commerce engine integrated into the Today Show. It will see presenters including Sylvia Jeffreys, Tom Steinfort, Alison Piotrowski, David Campbell and Belinda Russell, present “curated product reviews” across “high-affinity categories”.
These talent-driven reviews will provide brands and audiences with “a level of authenticity rarely seen in the social media age,” according to Nine.
Viewers will then be able to purchase products from the nine.com.au digital storefront combining click-to-buy affiliate commissions and premium sponsor placements.
“From an advertising point of view, it’s easy to say but very hard to do to integrate across all those different platforms,” Yango’s Murdoch said.
“You’ve got to have good people that understand the platforms and be able to sell those solutions in.”
QMS is also launching a new digital retail out of home network called Shop. It will be present across the Metcash “LocalEyes” network with more than 860 screens across IGA, Cellarbrations, The Bottle-O, Thirsty Camel, Mitre 10, Home Hardware and Total Tools, as well as The Convenience Network’s 470 screens at the entry to 7-Eleven stores nationally.
It is open to endemic and non-endemic brands. QMS chief sales officer Tim Murphy said it “presents advertisers with the perfect environment to dominate the critical spring and summer retail periods, including Christmas and New Year.”
What Changes?
The closer integration of all Nine’s assets certainly seems to make sense from an outside perspective. Integration, silo removal and ease trading, buying and planning are all important.
It certainly struck a chord with media agencies B&T spoke to.
Arlt said there were “really strong opportunities” and its push for offering up deeper, more reliable business metric results was what “every marketer wants”.
Heffernan said the integration of QMS was the most interesting part of the evening.
“That’s the one I’d be keeping an eye on… There’s a lot they could be doing with integrating into their broader content ecosystem.”
“Ever since Fairfax, they’ve had these amazing brands but they’ve felt a bit in isolation. Now they’ve added QMS to the list,” added Murdoch.
“The way they were talking about the integration of the content and the unique nature of each platform, it feels like they’re getting better and better at it.”
“Nine is really powerful in the strength of its ecosystem,” said Baker, “it really is.”
“What we recommend to advertisers, Nine is typically a big part of it. But we make our decisions by client against the audience and each individual asset. The flexibility on what assets we tap into is paramount.
“I don’t want it to feel like a one-stop-shop. While it’s compelling, that flexibility in what we want to access and the role of channel is still really important… You want to make sure that you’ve got the flexibility if it’s right or not right and it can be unbundled as well as bundled together,” she said.
What is clear, however, is that Nine’s ambition is not going anywhere.
