Brendon Harrington. Credit: Amy Jordee Photography.
The 2026 Milano Cortina Paralympic Games will deliver the widest Australian broadcast coverage of any Winter Paralympics to date.
Every event will stream live on 9Now, and Paralympics Australia will, for the first time, place a dedicated social media producer on the ground to boost athlete engagement.
Speaking at AdNews Brisbane L!VE, Paralympics Australia general manager of brand, marketing and digital, Brendon Harrington, said investment and engagement is growing each year.
“Nine will have every event streaming on 9Now and we’ll also have a social media person on the ground for the first time at a Winter Paralympic Games,” he said at AdNews Brisbane L!VE.
The momentum began in Tokyo, accelerated in Paris and continues with the Milano Cortina Games.
“I think the real shift for the Paralympic Games started with Tokyo,” Harrington said.
“Australians were in lockdown watching on TV and streaming, and they saw how incredible the sport is. Paris took it up another notch.
“Our Paris deal with Nine was the biggest broadcast rights deal for a Paralympic Games in Australia, it was ground breaking.
“And seeing partners take on Paralympic-only partnerships, without the Olympics attached, shows a strong shift in Australia.”
The growth is also reflected in high-profile campaigns and fan engagement.
“During the Games and the lead-up, brands like Woolworths created a campaign featuring Paralympian Pierce as their hero piece,” Harrington said.
“Our hero moment was the Welcome Home, where the Paralympians arrived at the Qantas hangar in Sydney for the first time.”
The Winter Games team is small but ambitious.
“We have a small team, so our challenge is maximising opportunities for the Winter Games and giving those athletes the same spotlight our team of 160 had in Paris,” Harrington said.
“Partners for 2032 won’t yet be ours beyond 2026, so we need to work within that and ensure our athletes get the same share of voice as Olympians.”
Revenue, reach and data are key pillars for Paralympics Australia.
“Revenue is critical, we’re a charity, and philanthropy allows us to provide more opportunities and drive societal change,” Harrington said.
“By 2032, we want Paralympians as well-known as Olympians. We rely on partners to help tell those stories because we don’t have their media budgets.
Harrington said data would help provide key learnings to achieve exactly that.
“Data is a journey and we’re at the beginning,” he said.
“We need to create meaningful journeys for aspiring athletes and supporters.
“We need to nurture them, respect their generosity, and build a stronger foundation so we can eventually fund things like medal payments ourselves.”
The organisation is also focused on brand and content.
“We’ve been working with Publicis since they helped us relaunch our Imagine brand strategy and the ‘Imagine What We Can Do’ campaign,” Harrington said.
“We’ve completed Horizon 2 of our organisational strategy, Uplift, and we’ve just finished research for our new brand platform that will take us from 2026 through to 2032.
“We need an enduring platform all Australians can get behind.”
AdNews would like to thank our sponsors. Supporting partners: Audience360, Blis, Foxtel Media and NINE. Associate Partners: LiSTNR and PubMatic. Friends of AdNews: BAA and BADC
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