Amanda Laing. Credit: Nine
For much of the past decade, the media industry has been focused on fragmentation.
And understandably so.
Audiences have never had greater choice in where, when and how they consume content.
But while platforms have multiplied, one thing has remained remarkably consistent.
People still care deeply about a relatively small number of things: the stories that reflect their lives, the sport they passionately follow, the news and information they trust, and the personalities, communities and conversations they feel connected to.
The platforms may have multiplied. Human passions haven’t.
And that distinction matters, because success in media is becoming less about the volume of content we create and increasingly about how deeply we understand the audiences we serve.
At Nine, we’ve built our business around that belief.
Through Stan, we’ve spent over a decade investing in Australian storytelling and creative talent, because relevance creates connection.
The stories that resonate most powerfully with Australians are often the ones that reflect our culture, our communities and the conversations already happening around us.
The same principle applies to sport.
Across the group, we invest in the sports Australians care deeply about – the sports we play, the codes we follow, and the ones that bring communities together.
Whether it’s Rugby League, Rugby Union, the Premier League, Tennis, the NBL and WNBL, Swimming, Athletics, the Olympic Games or the recently secured Netball rights, sport has a unique ability to create connection, routine and shared experience.
That emotional resonance creates some of the most engaged audiences in media.
One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned over the past year is that audiences follow moments, stories and experiences – not platforms.
We saw that during the Australian Open and Winter Olympics, where audience growth extended across the entire Nine ecosystem, from our free-to-air broadcast into 9Now and through to Stan Sport.
But entertainment revealed the same behaviour in a very different way. Audience engagement around Married at First Sight extended far beyond the broadcast and 9Now experience, creating a cultural slipstream that carried audiences across multiple platforms, formats and experiences.
What began as a television program became a broader cultural conversation that audiences actively followed across broadcast, streaming, publishing, social and digital platforms.
That momentum ultimately culminated in MAFS: After The Dinner Party driving the largest influx of subscribers to Stan from a single episode in the platform’s history – proof that when audiences are deeply invested in a story, they actively seek out new ways to engage with it.
Importantly, it also points to a growing opportunity for advertisers.
Stan’s investment in Original productions doesn’t just create audience connection. It creates opportunities to attract entirely new audiences and build entirely new audience experiences around content.
Whether it’s Original series like Turned On or franchise extensions like MAFS: After The Dinner Party, the opportunity isn’t simply to launch a successful show. It’s to identify emerging audience communities, create content that serves them, and extend those relationships through new formats, conversations and experiences.
That approach helps us reach audiences that are often younger, highly engaged and consuming content in ways that don’t always exist within traditional television environments.
For me, that’s one of the clearest signals of how audience behaviour is evolving.
The lesson from MAFS wasn’t simply that audiences watched. It was that they were willing to follow a story beyond its original format when given a compelling reason.
The challenge for media companies is creating those opportunities.
That insight is shaping how we think about audience growth, engagement and accessibility across the business.
It also sits behind the introduction of the Basic with Ads tier on Stan.
For years, the streaming conversation has often been framed as subscription versus advertising. I think that’s the wrong lens.
The real question is how we create new entry points into great content.
Different audiences want different things. Some prioritise ad-free viewing, others want flexibility, and for many it’s about value.
Basic with Ads reflects that philosophy. It broadens access to premium entertainment and creates a new entry point into Stan for audiences seeking a different viewing proposition.
Because growing audiences and improving accessibility benefits everyone – audiences, fans, creators, advertisers and rights holders alike.
And as audiences move between streaming, broadcast, publishing, audio and digital environments, the opportunity isn’t simply to reach them. It’s to better understand the passions, behaviours and moments that connect those experiences.
This is where the advantage of a connected ecosystem becomes increasingly important.
A fan might watch a match on Stan Sport, follow breaking news on 9News, read analysis in The Sydney Morning Herald, listen to a 9Podcast on the way to work and continue the conversation on social media. And now, following our recent acquisition of outdoor media company QMS, that fan might also see a clip or a headline in an out-of-home environment during their day.
To them, it’s one connected experience.
Increasingly, advertisers want to understand those journeys too – not simply where audiences are, but how they move, what they engage with and how passion travels across different environments.
That’s where I believe the greatest opportunity exists. Not in operating individual platforms. But in creating connected experiences around the things audiences care about most.
Because when audience passion grows, everyone benefits: content gains value, audience relationships deepen, advertising becomes more effective, and creators gain new opportunities to reach and grow their communities.
The strongest content, the strongest audience relationships and the strongest advertising outcomes all start in the same place: understanding what people genuinely care about.
The companies that win won’t be the ones that build the highest walls around their audiences.
They’ll be the ones that understand them best.
The ones that create the strongest connections to the things people genuinely care about.
And that’s a future worth building towards.
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