THE NEXT piece of Australia's television sports puzzle has fallen into place and could have positive ramifications for the AFL's push into the summer months.

Channel Nine has won the rights to telecast the Australian Open tennis from 2020.

The five-year $300million deal was announced on Thursday.

It's means the Seven Network, the AFL's long-time free-to-air partner, will no longer have its January calendar blocked out for tennis coverage.

The AFL's decision to delay the start of the AFL Women's season until after the tennis was in part because it wouldn't be able to get free-to-air television exposure.

With Seven's schedule set to be freed up when the AFLW competition expands to 14 teams in 2020, the way could be paved for more women's games to be shown.

The AFLW grows to 10 teams next year with the addition of Geelong and North Melbourne, and to 14 in 2020 when Richmond, St Kilda, West Coast and Gold Coast enter. 

The AFL is yet to negotiate a television deal for AFLW from 2019 onwards.

The new availability of airtime on the free-to-air broadcaster could pave the way for more AFLX-style tournaments to be beamed into lounge rooms in summer months, potentially from overseas.

It's understood Seven may also remain in the mix for the rights to cricket's Big Bash.

All Australian cricket rights are currently up for tender but may now be delayed because of the ball-tampering scandal enveloping the men's national team.

Significantly, Nine's deal with Tennis Australia includes not only streaming and mobile but also live social media rights – relatively new components of media deals, but likely to become increasingly lucrative.

The AFL's media rights deal with Seven, Foxtel and Telstra worth $2.508 billion runs until the end of 2022.