Nine best placed in a sector facing challenges

For example, Stanton points out that one of Nine’s broadcast assets is Australian Financial Review, It is “scraped” by the AI ​​10 times per second. And there’s no easy way to handle this. Stanton likens it to playing a game of Whac-A-Mole.

“I think there will be agreements on AI; they need our content for their models,” he said

And if the looting from these tech giants isn’t enough of a hurdle, an even bigger shadow looms. Tariff complications raised by US President Donald Trump.

Trump has already amply demonstrated his protectionist instincts and his willingness to intimidate any government that tries to restrict or impose conditions on US tech giants.

There will be an interesting debate at the upcoming meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Trump, who has just come off the top of negotiations thanks to his role in ending the conflict in the Middle East.

Australian broadcasters may be quietly confident that Trump will appreciate the existential crisis they face, but if the last six months have taught us anything, it’s that there is nothing predictable about the US president.

At the same time, Stanton must keep Nine’s own operations humming along against the backdrop of repairing the organisation’s previously scandal-ridden culture and soft advertising market.

Stanton has made turbocharged changes to the operating model since taking office; This means running the various arms of the business (broadcasting, radio, streaming and broadcasting) in a unified way on the backend, using and leveraging data captured by digital assets.

Stanton uses the example of broadcasting an Australian Open tennis match. The company used readership from subscribers Age And Sydney Morning Herald to catch those looking at a tennis-related story.

It then successfully targeted these people, encouraging tens of thousands of people to sign up to 9Now to watch tennis matches. Leveraging its diversified media business clearly puts Nine in a solid competitive position.

And that’s a lesson other players understand, too. Just a few weeks ago Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media (which owns the Seven Network and West Australian print assets) proposed a merger with radio company Southern Cross Media.

Somewhat counterintuitively, Nine recently sold its 60 per cent stake in digital property portal Domain at the beginning of this year; because it was the only business in his portfolio that did not suffer growth interruption.

With Nine’s TV and broadcast arms struggling with a structural decline in advertising budgets and streaming Stan swimming in a lake of competitors, Domain was the only business growing. So why sell the stock?

Stanton’s answer is pretty clear: the $3.2 billion price (offered by US real estate giant CoStar) was too good an offer to refuse.

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“It’s all about the return for shareholders… because the price was too good to say no.”

Nine paid back some of its share of the cash to shareholders, but still had enough money left in the bank to buy a new business and/or enter the ring for sports broadcasting rights.

And when the review of the radio business leads to the eventual sale of the business, he may find himself some additional money on the side.

There has been much speculation surrounding Nine’s acquisition of outdoor advertising group oOh!media. Stanton does not rule out this possibility, but he does not mention it either.

He says it’s expensive and a little out of Nine’s wheelhouse.

Instead, it appears to be leaning more into entertainment rather than buying a tech business (the path some of the US’s traditional media companies have taken).

Traditional media companies in Australia are a long way from the glory days that are never coming back, but at Nine Stanton has the keys to the best house on the worst street.

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