Nine Entertainment is confident that Stan’s investment in the Premier League will pay dividends, delivering larger audiences and more subscribers to the streaming service.
In June, Nine acquired the rights to the Premier League and FA Cup from Optus Sport for an estimated $300 million ($100 million per season), leading to the latter to shut down.
Nine chief executive Matt Stanton said the Premier League had already led to a spike in Stan subscribers from 2.3 million to 2.5 million, following a fiscal year in which Stan’s revenue grew by 10 per cent.
Although it is not easy to apportion the whole 200,000 lift to the Premier League, Stanton said that figure is “roughly” right.
And viewers are tuning in to watch the football. Saturday night’s fixture between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur drew an audience of more than 567,000 with a reach of more than 1.5 million across Stan and Nine.
“The results have been extraordinary,” Stanton said. “This was more than double our usual audience in that time slot. The second weekend (of the Premier League) delivered the most sports viewers on a single day in Stan’s history.”
The Premier League wasn’t the only big ticket show in town; the Wallabies test match against South Africa and the All Blacks encounter with Argentina would have also attracted eyeballs.
Nonetheless, Stanton is confident that interest in the Premier League will continue to drive subscribers, including fans who previously watched it on Optus Sports and new organic subs.
“As we go from 2026 to 2027, [we believe the EPL] will hold up our subs more and, importantly, hold up the average revenue per use (ARPU) of the business,” Stanton said. “We moved our Stan Sports price from $15 to $20 because of the addition of the Premier League into that suite, we’ve got scale in that market now.”
Stanton is confident the $5 price hike will not lead to massive churn and that the platform’s suits of sport – including Premier League, Champions League, Australian Open, Rugby Champions and Winter Olympics – provides an all year calendar or premium sport to attract more subscribers.
Stan’s ARPU increased by 6 per cent in FY25, and with the addition of advertising in Stan Sport, Stanton believes there are plenty of opportunities to grow ARPU further.
“No one else can launch events like we can and we’ve launched ads into Stan sport, which means that nine advertisers are now able to reach audiences across live broadcast, live streaming and on demand platforms, creating the most powerful video platform in Australia,” Stanton said.
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