NEW YORK—Australia’s Nine Network and the NHL today announced a media partnership that will bring the world’s premier professional ice hockey league to Australian audiences free-to-air.

Starting Saturday, Oct. 18, multicast network 9GO! will broadcast a live NHL game every Saturday morning throughout the 2025-26 regular season. The partnership will deliver 21 games over Nine’s seven stations.

The first game begins at 10 a.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) on 9GO! and streaming service 9Now with a Tampa Bay Lightning-Detroit Red Wings matchup. The broadcast schedule is available here.

In a unique collaboration, Nine and the NHL have developed a customized broadcast feed specifically for the Australian market. Produced by NHL Productions in its New York studio, the feed will provide viewers with a tailored experience, featuring dedicated commentators providing play-by-play commentary and analysis tailored for the Australian audience, as well as customized intermission coverage with in-depth analysis, player profiles and explainers on the rules of the game to engage both new and existing fans.

The 2025-26 NHL season is particularly significant as the league will pause from Feb. 6-24 as to allow its top players to compete in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Nine's commentary team will highlight this storyline, connecting fans with the players who will represent their countries on the world stage and building anticipation for Nine’s exclusive coverage of the Winter Games.

Brent Williams, Nine’s director of sport, said the partnership “isn’t just a broadcast—it’s a tailored viewing experience.”

“We are incredibly excited to partner with the NHL to bring the fastest game on ice to Australian homes, free-to-air,“ he said. “By creating a dedicated feed with local commentary and specialized content, we are committed to growing the sport in Australia and giving fans the best possible coverage. The link to the Winter Olympics provides a fantastic narrative that will build excitement for what is a huge event on the Nine calendar.”

In 2023, the Los Angeles Kings and Arizona Coyotes faced off in the NHL Global Series-Melbourne, a pair of sold-out preseason contests that were first-ever NHL games played in the Southern Hemisphere. The week-long celebration also included three days of the NHL Global Fan Tour, the league’s traveling fan festival, and coaching, officiating and youth hockey clinics.

“We are thrilled Nine shares our commitment to delivering live games to more fans across Australia,” said Daniel Kim, NHL executive vice president, media and international strategy. “The overwhelming success of the NHL Global Series Melbourne, coupled with the growing enthusiasm for our grassroots, learn-to-play hockey initiatives and increasing social media engagement across our dedicated channels, underscores the impact of our investment in Australia.”

Viewers will likely be most interested in St. Louis Blues games as forward Nathan Walker is the league’s first Australian player. He is currently in his eighth NHL season.

According to the most recent report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), approximately 48% of TV households in Australia view over-the-air TV, down from 61% in 2020.

SYDNEY—The Nine Network has completed its purchase, installation and roll out of Sony ILME-FR7 PTZ cameras into its remote operated studio in Canberra. The new remote broadcast news studio is particularly unique due to its use of the Sony large sensor PTZ cameras, not traditionally used in studio television.

“This new studio is particularly effective for us as, by using the Sony FR7 cameras, we can remotely control all of the cameras and setup from Sydney,” Nine Chief CTO of broadcast operations David Bowers explained. “This is not only a very efficient workflow, but it also saved us a considerable amount of money when compared to  buying and installing a full robotic setup.”

Sony FR7 cameras are also being used in the Nine Network’s talent operated studio in Canberra.

The new four-camera studio enjoys both fully remote production from Sydney and open plan local control in Canberra. It also comprises production, news exchange and basic edit facilities and capabilities, Sony reported. 

“We wanted to build a multi- purpose studio with full remote capability,” Nine broadcast systems integration manager Mark Rath said. “For that we required the best PTZ cameras that could accommodate varying lens requirements in the studio. We assessed all the PTZ cameras available in the market and found the Sony FR7 met all of our requirements perfectly.”

Sony’s FR7 PTZ camera with its high-performance full-frame image sensor and the expressive scope of Sony’s extensive E-mount lens lineup work with versatile remote pan/tilt/zoom control, high flexibility in zoom capability and wide angle shooting to break through location and space limitations to open up creative possibilities for broadcasters and content creators in studio, live production and filmmaking settings. It also offers versatile connectivity and efficient multi camera workflow support, Sony reported. 

“The FR7 is exactly what we required for our remote operated broadcast studio in Canberra as it provides us with large sensor studio quality cameras - our key requirement,” Bowers concluded. “The picture quality and the ability to interchange lenses with the FR7 is also excellent. In short, by using Sony FR7 PTZ cameras the Nine Network now has the ability to have complete access to the studio in Canberra when needed and the ability to sit talent in a remote location, while we in turn do all the production including audio/video, lighting and comms from Sydney.”

SYDNEY—For one of the most ambitious engineering projects in its history, Australian broadcaster Nine Network deployed a variety of Sony cameras and technologies for its recently opened new studio and headquarters in North Sydney, Australia. 

In the new state-of-the-art facility, Sony cameras played a particularly important role and were selected based on an extensive list of technical requirements.

“We required a mixture of fiber-attached system cameras setup as a mix of robotic pedestals, traditional pedestals, jib and handhelds,” explained Nine Network studio, live technology and automation specialist, Stephen Willmott.

Other requirements included high quality pan/tilt/zoom-capable cameras for smaller studios, SMPTE 2110 compatibility where possible, ease of use, a networked camera control system to enable multiple control rooms access and control of cameras, a potential path to 4K and excellent quality pictures, Willmott said. 

“The cameras would also be used across five floors of a high-rise office block,” he added. 

Currently, Nine is using the Sony equipment across all of their studio programs, including six hours of live morning television, sports hosting, panel shows and nightly newscasts.  

Typically, they use a mix of Sony HDCU3100 or HDCU3500 cameras with a number of BRC cameras for additional angles. Their smaller studios use BRC cameras exclusively and there are a few “stand-up” style positions where BRCX1000 cameras are used. 

“The Sony equipment has allowed us to be flexible in moving cameras around the facility as required show to show, seamlessly expanding our camera inventory all while maintaining familiar functionality and a high picture quality,” Willmott explained. 

Since the facility opened, the broadcaster has commissioned another studio with five additional cameras. 

In addition to the cameras, Nine deployed more than 90 Sony professional LMD series monitors throughout the facility. 

These are used for reference, editing and general review applications. The professional monitors were combined with numerous large display panels used for multiview applications.

SYDNEY—Nine Network has deployed Dejero CuePoint, which enables sending low-latency video, audio and teleprompting feeds from the return feed server to live production teams in the field, becoming the first broadcaster in the Australia-Asia-Pacific region to do so.

“We had two projects that required us to deliver streaming video to remote overseas sites but where budget and technical constraints meant we couldn’t use traditional fiber or satellite link,” said Nine Network’s Michael Sammut.

“The first was a semi-permanent studio setup where all we had was an internet connection. CuePoint enabled us to deliver a return program feed to the presenter, meaning we can now have them talk to the pictures that are going to air on the other side of the world, at a fraction of the cost of a satellite lease and with no ongoing costs aside from a normal internet connection.”

Talent in the field can use a tablet or dedicated screen above or below a camera to view return video and teleprompting feeds with CuePoint. The product, which easily scales to the number of return feeds required, can also feed multiple mobile devices used by camera operators, field directors and technicians, said Dejero.

“The second was to enable our crews at major events, for example the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, to access what we’re putting to air from out in the field on their smartphones. This means they can be more mobile and stay out in the field where they need to be, without having to return to the office to see the vision,” said Sammut.

Extremely low latency was mandatory for Nine Network if CuePoint was to meet the broadcaster’s production needs. Flexibility was also a factor. “[CuePoint] needed to be flexible enough that we can provide the feed to anyone—even people outside our organization,” said Sammut.

One example is doing a live cross to a studio where it’s not practical to book a return video feed. “We still want the presenter to be able to talk to the pictures that are going to air,” said Sammut. “CuePoint enables us to increase our production values and helps the presenter to provide accurate commentary on what’s going to air, which is great for our viewers and our producers.”

Nine News has even provided the return video feed to freelance cameramen doing live crosses in places where they just have a Dejero to link to the broadcaster. The freelancers “simply connect their laptop to the internet and put it in the talent’s eye line, and we’re off and running,” he added.

Another recent example of CuePoint’s flexibility entailed social media producers for a show working overseas, explained Sammut. Needing to time their social media posts with what was going to air, the producers relied on an off-air feed from Nine Network sent via CuePoint, which helped optimize viewer engagement.

“[CuePoint has] turned something that always required a large investment of time and effort into something we can simply turn on or off at a moment’s notice,” he said.

Dejero tech partner Digistor supplied CuePoint to Nine Network.

More information is available on the Dejero website.