Nine Entertainment Co (owner of this masthead) bought the 2020 to 2024 tennis broadcast and digital rights for $300 million in 2018 while Seven West Media and News Corp’s pay-TV platform Foxtel paid $1.2 billion for six years of cricket.

In a later deal with Seven and Tennis Australia, Nine bought the rights for the 2019 Australian Open for $48.5 million.

Nine revealed on Monday it had secured Kia, ANZ, AGL and Uber Eats for its top-tier partnership for the Grand Slam tournament and sponsorships with Mastercard, Bunnings, Chemist Warehouse, Industry SuperFunds, Peters, Blackmores and APT, as well as Nine-owned subscription video platform Stan.

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Cricket’s Test audience declined 30 per cent on free-to-air compared to previous games, largely due to Foxtel’s simulcast and its new streaming platform Kayo Sports and a poorer performance from the Australian team. A Seven spokesman recently said its audience figures had surpassed internal targets.

Nine's success with tennis was not matched by the audience result for a newly launched Today show without Karl Stefanovic, which was not as buoyant as hoped. Georgie Gardner was joined by new hosts Deb Knight, Tom Steinfort, Tony Jones and Brooke Boney for a new look panel.

Today reached 196,652 people across the five city metro, compared to Seven's Sunrise with 266,469. ABC News and breakfast combined had a reach of 137,287.

Sources close to Nine say it's early days for the revamped breakfast show and a shaky start isn't entirely unexpected, particularly in January as holidays come to a close.

Nine director of morning television Steven Burling said in a statement that the first morning was "extremely positive" and was reassured about the new line up.

“There are always challenges when producing an outside broadcast of this size and duration and our on-air team wonderfully covered any early hiccups our production team may have experienced behind the scenes," Mr Burling said.

"We know this is a long game and we will continue every day to work hard and improve across the board to provide our audience with the best show we can each and every day."