★★★★★ 0/5

Bidding underway for TV rights to Cricket

Both Seven and TEN have reportedly bid for Cricket Australia's next broadcast rights, but Nine remains favourite.

15
Leave a comment

cricket-ballBoth Seven and TEN have reportedly bid for Cricket Australia’s next broadcast rights.

The seven-year $315 million rights deal between Cricket Australia and Nine includes Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 games and finishes at the end of next summer. The auction includes online and mobile rights.

But Nine’s current deal includes a  first and last rights clause in its contract, allowing it to better those from the competition.

TEN has been on the record about its desire to nab the rights, given it is without AFL, NRL, Tennis and V8s. The new deal will be seen by many as a test of its new management.

Cricket Australia generates 80 per cent of total income from domestic and international TV rights and is keen to see a substantial rights fee rise. However networks are slashing costs during an advertising downturn.

The Australian reports  Telstra did not submit a bid, while FOX Sports lodged an increased offer for the Big Bash but no other formats. It currently pays $12m a year for the rights to the domestic competitions.

Nine remains the broadcaster most favoured to emerge the victor.

15 Responses

  2. Hoping 9 gets the rights and GEM show matches which are blacked out. If TEN gets the rights cricket broadcasting in Australia will never be the same. No Bill Lawry or Richie Bernaud each summer.

  3. I know money come back to it but maybe ten can do the Australia cricket in Australia and channel one does Australia cricket away like in India or South Africa

  6. I think ten and seven will do a better job of tennis and cricket then nine. Seven ten will show all games live because seven has seven two and seven mate and seven were ten got ten and one. They do better job then nine and gem

  7. Ten need sport and would love the have international cricket or BBL.

    Nine wants to keep the Tests and Twenty20s and doesn’t want anyone else to have the prime ODIs.

    Channel 7 probably don’t want the cricket that much but they will put in a bid to stop the others getting the rights cheap and also as a hedge in case they loose the rights to the Tennis.

    As long as the price is going up the last rights will likely benefit the sporting body. If it is going down then it does allow the holder to put in a low bid safe in the knowledge they can increase it if needed. This is what Seven did the V8s.

    If 9 or Ten were genuinely interested then they would have put in higher bids and at least driven up what Seven paid. But even Ten, which is looking to expand its sports broadcasting, wasn’t that interested in the V8s beyond the one race associated with the F1 race, which they already have.

  9. TEN is paying around $70 million for the rights and they could raise the bid even further, but 7 is not even stand a chance of securing it. It could and should be Nine and TEN in the tv deal.
    @Pertinax
    TEN will partner FOX for BBL leaving Nine with the rest of the deal and Nine is suppose to cost cut and plus $4 billion with SCA deal

  10. @ Pertinax, did some research and found that the first and last rights clauses has been removed from the AFL, NRL and v8 future tv rights deals. The V8 TV deal was a fine example where the other networks shows little interest when 7 could veiw their bids. I think 7 & 10 are ramping up the price to put more financial pain on 9. Surely 9 will be starting to feel some pain soon.

  11. Channel 9 paid CA for first and last bid rights with the last deal. It makes the rights worth more to the broadcaster because they can guarantee keeping them if they want to spend the money. So they give CA more money.

    Fairly standard in this sort of business deal. No network would bother promoting and building up a sport for another network to poach it off them.

    Nine will likely keep the Tests and ODI and Twenty20 internationals. They built them up and will have more money after their debt deal and dropping the @l^mp!cs.

    The question is whether Nine lets Ten take the BBL away from Foxtel, or if they buy the rights and do a deal to let Foxtel screen the games they don’t want. This was tipped last year but may not happen in the current climate.

  14. If Nine does get the rights 🙁 and TEN is emerging as a contender to steal the TA rights off 7. I believe that Nine is the favourite to win, just like the V8s TEN was the front runner to win the rights but 7 ending up winning it

  15. In any other business enviroment, that first and last rights clause would be deemed anti- competitive behaviour by the ACCC. Why is it embedded in TV Sport rights deals in Australia?
    Nine will get the rights, but by default as they did with NRL.

Leave a Reply