Netball WA Group chief executive Simone Hansen says a new broadcast deal between Netball Australia and Nine Entertainment could create new opportunities for the code.
On Wednesday, Netball Australia announced it had signed a five-year broadcast rights deal with Nine Entertainment, beginning on January 1 2027, for an undisclosed amount.
Netball Australia’s existing broadcast rights deal signed with DAZN-owned Foxtel began in 2022, valued overall at around $35 million, and will end at the end of 2026.
Under its new agreement with Nine, which has held the broadcast rights previously, all Suncorp Super Netball league matches and Australian Diamonds internationals will be shown across Nine’s television platform, 9Network, along with its streaming platforms 9Now and Stan Sport.
All 64 matches at next year’s 2027 Netball World Cup, held in Sydney between August 25 and September 5 next year, will also be broadcast across these platforms.
The broadcast deal is particularly significant, as it means netball will effectively emerge from behind a paywall – something which Ms Hansen says could provide plenty of opportunities for both SSN clubs and the code overall.
“The return to free-to-air television marks an important moment for West Coast Fever, the league and netball more broadly, creating new opportunities to drive visibility, promotion and commercial outcomes,” she said.
Last season, 79,799 spectators attended Fever’s eight home games – and earlier this year, it also set a pre-season record, with more than 2000 spectators attending its Perth High Performance Centre clash against the Adelaide Thunderbirds.
During its recently released THINK 2026-2030 Strategic Plan, Netball WA outlined a series of key metrics, including its desire for Fever to not only have 10,000 paid members, but also have an average home game attendance of 10,000 spectators by 2030.
Ms Hansen told Business News said greater exposure across Nine’s platform would be ideal in increasing the club’s reach across all areas of WA.
“We are looking forward to our Green Army being able to watch the Fever on the screens of the Nine Network and Stan Sport from 2027 and beyond,” she said.
“As I am sure is the case for all clubs, the more free to air matches we can generate the better the outcome for West Coast Fever.”
Speaking to 6PR early on Thursday morning, Netball Australia chair Liz Ellis said there was scope for expanding SSN from eight to 10 teams in coming years, however said it was unlikely a new team would be based out of Perth.
“Perth’s very much behind the West Coast Fever,” Ms Ellis said.
“We ran an expression of interest late last year just to see if there was feasibility to talk about expansion.
“We had a really good response to that. Now we know what the broadcast deal looks like, we’ll go back and look at the modelling and understand how and when we can do that.
“We’ve got a responsibility to run the game in a fiscally safe manner, so I think expansion is something we absolutely should look at.
“Personally, I’d love to see it. I’d love to see more teams, more opportunities for more athletes to play netball professionally. But we just need to figure out when is the best time to do that.
“Certainly now, the building blocks are in place.”
Ms Hansen said she would continue to advocate for netball in WA whenever possible.
“We will continue to work collaboratively with Netball Australia to ensure any future growth is financially sustainable for WA, and the league more broadly, and represents a strategically sound growth trajectory,” she said.
