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Nine: “We wish Cricket Australia & its new broadcast partners success”

Updated: Nine confirms the end of its 40 year run as the home of Cricket. TEN confirms loss of Big Bash League.

Foxtel and Seven are set to confirm their deal for the Cricket, ending Nine’s 40 year reign of Cricket, famously reworked for Television by David Hill under Kerry Packer.

It is expected TEN will also lose the Big Bash League.

A Nine spokesperson today said, “Nine is immensely proud of our decades long association between Wide World of Sports and the game of cricket in this country. We wish Cricket Australia and its new broadcast partners well for the future success of the game.

“Cricket will continue to be a part of Nine’s schedule into the future with current deals in place covering the next Ashes series from England in 2019, the ODI World Cup in the UK in the same year and in 2020 the T20 World Cups to be held in Australia.

“But most of all, Nine is excited by our new partnership with Tennis Australia; a partnership that enables us to further evolve our business model into a new future; a partnership built on common values and vision to mutually build the game and Nine’s business as we connect with more audiences the way they choose.

“Our focus remains on the cross-platform opportunities in front of us and finding the best ways to continue to create value for our shareholders in to the future.”

Updated: 

Network TEN chief executive officer Paul Anderson said: “We are disappointed that our bid for the cricket television rights was rejected.

“Network TEN turned the Big Bash League into the television phenomenon it is today and one of the most popular sports in Australia, a sport that all Australians were able to enjoy for free. We had planned to extend that innovation to other forms of the game.

“Network TEN and our BBL team led by David Barham revolutionised the way cricket is broadcast in Australia and attracted new, younger viewers to the game. At the same time, we invested heavily in the Women’s Big Bash League, broadcasting matches in primetime for the first time and raising its profile significantly.

“We are proud of everything we achieved with the BBL and WBBL,” he said.

Further update: Seven confirms it is the successful bidder with Foxtel. Contracts not yet signed. A full announcement this afternoon.

34 Responses

  1. Seriously nine do you really expect anyone to believe this ridiculous statement nine could not wait to dump the cricket it didn’t rate it was costing the network some forty million because it couldn’t get the revenue in. Reality the fans are screwed .CA put greed over fans .

  2. I suspect that Nine recognised the declining interest in test cricket and it’s limited over circus and the increased costs of broadcasting live games with all the bells and whistles, while Mr Packer controlled how cricket was packaged cricket in all it’s forms maintained some commercial value, but in recent years CA has become dependent on the broadcast money which may be okay for it’s celebrity star players but did nothing for cricket in general which like the Sheffield Shield has become ignored and has suffered empty stadiums in recent years as big name cricket tournaments took over.

  3. Big mistake Cricket Australia, Ten constantly gave you 800,000 viewers each game. You will be lucky to get half that on Fox. You have just lowered the value of your product in doing so.

  4. In 2018-19, Channel 9 will only have one sporting (Santos TDU) while 10 won’t have any sport during summer (except the A-league soccer which would be on One). Look at the ratings for these sporting events: Fox ratings are much higher compared to One.

  5. Think it’s a good thing that the tennis and cricket have swapped channels as both seemed to have declined over the past few years so perhaps this might generate new interest in the sports. Nine may have the sole rights to tennis and seven only having limited rights to cricket but I suppose at least with the cricket the profits, if any, will stay in Australia and not go over to the US to the hedge fund companies that bailed channel nine out of trouble.

  6. While most probably already see them as such, with their vast array of sports throughout the year, I think Seven are now safe to start throwing the “home of sport” tagline around.

    AFL and cricket. Not much that can top that. Having NRL too maybe, but no FTA broadcaster could possibly afford all three.

    What a month or so of shocks. Nine grabbing the Aus Open, Seven grabbing test cricket.

    1. Don’t forget that Foxtel and Seven did have Presto together from Dec 2014 to Jan 2017 though, so it’s not completely out of nowhere as they’ve worked together recently, plus Seven did produce A Place To Call Home for Foxtel (after it left Seven).

      1. Oh and Seven and Foxtel do have a share arrangement with AFL Games in place of course.

        Also note: A Place To Call Home ends this year in August and is still a Seven Production.

  7. Like many I agree that it will be a shame if 10 lose the Big Bash, they do a great job every summer and have a good group of commentators. With regards to Nine losing the cricket, I couldn’t be happier! Awful commentary team, which stopped me watching Nine’s coverage some years ago now.
    I might rediscover cricket with the change to 7 and Foxtel, so happy with that change at least.

  8. There are winners and losers in all this. The winners are Nine and Foxtel. Nine because they got exclusive rights to the tennis (and really didn’t want the cricket) and Foxtel because they got all the cricket. The big losers are Network Ten and the cricket viewing public. In the middle is Seven who lost the tennis and get some of the cricket to share with Foxtel. Interesting times.

      1. Aahhh….tennis?
        What are Seven going to air on non-cricket nights? If people were worried before about Big Bash being overdone by adding more teams/matches to saturate and lengthen the tournament, you can probably now bet safely that it will. With 7 involved, the Big Bash will be ‘MKR-ed’.

  9. This isn’t the first time Seven has broadcast cricket. Before the Packer/Nine era in the 1970s the ABC had the cricket rights and they sold rights to the vision to Seven who had their own commentators. I remember as a kid switching between Seven and the ABC and seeing the same picture on both channels.

  10. A huge shame for Ten. As a diehard cricket and big bash fan. The big bash was majorly struggling before network ten. Ten has built up a brand only to lose it. Will be interesting what affect it has in its usual post-BBL time ratings as they do use the big bash as a huge promotional platform. Would have loved to seen it stay on ten

    1. No it wasn’t…
      it started on Foxtel – and it was amongst their highest rating shows each time it was on…
      why do you think channel 10 decided to get it?

  11. Such a shame for 10….I hope they do get Big Bash some how, but doubtful. If it wasn’t for 10 Big Bash wouldn’t be what it is today. Since the tennis gone, every over after big bash will be “after the cricket MKR”

  12. It’ll be interesting to hear if the online rights are also sold. I’d imagine Foxtel will want it so they can show the content for Foxtel Now customers.

    1. In an effort to save money Channel Seven are going to hire him to call the matches using several different voices. Though in reality it could give him some new material now, imagine Bruce McAvaney calling a shot delicious or with Seven recently hiring James Brayshaw him calling matches again.

      Honestly though I suspect half the Nine Team will move across anyway, they join the Sky Sports Team in the UK when it’s there so can’t see it change much, can also see Foxtel retaining most of the TEN Big Bash commentators as well.

  13. Next January will be extra busy with Cricket and the final year of their Oz Open Tennis contract. Will Seven dump Tennis to a digital SD multi-channel when it clashes with the Cricket? Tennis on 7flix anyone?

  14. Nine chose the tennis and didn’t want the cricket. They were just putting in a bid to drive the price up and ensure that their rivals couldn’t get it cheap. Seven has been forced to pay a lot for right to tests and BBL without getting the digital rights, so that they can be streamed against them. Since they are covered by the anti-syphoning laws, how do Seven and Foxtel stop Ten just making an offer for the ODIs and T20s? This looks like a stunt by Fox to try and get around the law to get exclusive summer content because the A-League ratings are plummeting.

    1. There’s nothing in the anti-siphoning scheme that would enable a subsequent bid to trump the negotiated outcome with Foxtel and Seven. The scheme just ensures that the free to airs have first call on the rights, and the pattern of doing deals with pay TV is well established. Look at the AFL and NRL deals. All those matches are on the anti-siphoning list, but a coordinated bid between pay TV and free to airs is enough to satisfy the rules.

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