|  Good morning Gurpartap, There is nothing Australians love more than sport but for some Australians the national sport of recent years has been predicting the death of legacy media. Television as we know it will disappear, experts told us, because people will simply watch whatever they want whenever they want via on-demand streaming services. And yet it turns out that reports of this death were, as Mark Twain once said, greatly exaggerated. In fact two pillars of the media are still attracting huge numbers — often record numbers — to TV screens: News and sport. So much so that, as we reveal today, Australian companies are pouring more than $4 million a day into sports sponsorship deals. The NRL, AFL, cricket and soccer attract hundreds of millions of dollars each year, with media analysts predicting that spending will skyrocket. The total sponsorship market in Australia is already worth $1.5 billion a year, according to the Australian Association of National Advertisers, with both the NRL and AFL grand finals hitting record viewerships. More than 4 million people tuned in to each match this year, while an eye-watering 5 million pairs of eyeballs watched the Matildas' nail biting penalty shootout in the World Cup in 2023. And why? Because, like news, big sporting events aren't something you can just put on hold. They are happening in the real world, in real time, and people want to be a part of those big moments. As media guru Steve Allen tells this masthead: "Fans don't want to miss a moment, they want to see that special goal that will be written up in the papers the next day or talked about at work. "But sports sponsorships are more than just about exposure, companies want to be part of supporting Australian culture." In other words it is Australians' love of being part of a mass shared experience with other Australians that is not just keeping these big sporting and media events alive but seeing them surge to new heights. It is our love of being part of a team, be it Bombers or Broncos or just Team Australia. And that's something worth cheering on. | 
Joe Hildebrand
