★★★★★ 0/5

Bumper summer as Seven confirms both cricket & tennis

1 more year of Australian Open and now Cricket to schedule leaves Seven with a very good problem.

19
Leave a comment

Seven has confirmed it will air both cricket and tennis next summer, after some whispers it may have on-sold the Australian Open to Nine.

Seven has one more year of the Australian Open but moves imminently to Cricket as part of Cricket Australia’s deal with FOX Sports.

“We’ve got one more year in our deal with Tennis Australia, so we are committed to showing both cricket and tennis next summer,” CEO Tim Worner told the Macquarie Australia. “These are the only two summer sports that matter.

“It gives us an unprecedented opportunity to drive ratings and an unrivalled platform from which to launch our scheduling for the year.”

Having both major sports will raise questions about how Nine and TEN respond in summer programming. Even in non-ratings networks still need viewers and revenue, as well as platforms to promote their flagship February shows.

Could it mean both networks invest in low-cost original Summer programming? It’s something the US networks have always done, albeit with a much bigger population that allows it to be viable.

But it also raises questions about how Seven will be forced to programme major events over its suite of channels.

 

 

 

The men’s day/night Test against Sri Lanka in Brisbane beginning on January 24 will clash with the women’s and men’s Australian Open finals. Seven would almost certainly leave the tennis on its main channel and show cricket on either 7TWO or 7mate. That will impact on the HD broadcast for cricket fans.

Seven is also likely to telecast some Big Bash matches during the two-week Australian Open tournament that begins on January 14 .

Source: Australian Financial Review

19 Responses

  2. Turns out Seven senior network executive Lewis Martin told 3AW radio listeners some days ago too (that they’re comitted to tennis next summer – “we’ve already got our tennis unit working on it”).

  4. Don’t you Just love the spin networks put on when they end up with a dud .nine was losing forty million a year on its cricket coverage the test series was the lowest rating of all the cricket games .the tennis beat the cricket on nine all the time that’s why nine flogged the cricket off and went for the tennis and here is seven trying to put a positive spin on test cricket .the only ones laughing are pay tV with their one day and big bash exclusive coverage .foxtel is the true home of cricket becuase they have everything.seven has test cricket and a few big bash games

    2. Not quite right. While Foxtel certainly can claim to be the ‘home of Aussie cricket’ under the new TV deal (in terms of domestic cricket they’ve got everything of note, including domestic T20Is and ODIs exclusively) I think you are rather short selling what Seven have got. You say [Seven have] “test cricket and a few big bash games’… it’s actually a bit more than that, including and importantly the vast bulk [i.e. 43 of 59] of BBL games each season, including all finals, which is the same amount of BBL games that Ten screened in recent years. The bulk of these BBL games will be in prime-time and consistently rated strongly when on Ten. The difference is accounted for the expansion in the tournament from 2018-19, with these extra 16 games exclusive to pay TV. I have Fox Sports myself but think it’s a shame the T20s and ODIs will only be seen on Fox from now on. That’s the…

  5. With no summer sport from now on, this might give Ten time to work out what the hell it will do from 2020 when tennis is on 9 & 7 have the cricket . While they work out how they will survive, at least 9 will also be impacted by no sport next year

      1. Agreed – but this cycling event is not a major ratings driver, not in prime spots, and really not in the league of top cricket or tennis.

  6. If the Australian version of Love Island is a hit on 9Go! over the winter, I could see Channel 9 doing a second season of it during the Australian summer, but filming it locally. Easy content that can fit the later summer ‘primetime’ of 9-10pm that could gain public interest and discussion like our current reality offers.

  7. I feel like this is going to be a mess. Thankfully I’ll have the 7Tennis website so I don’t have to worry about the traditional broadcast.

    1. Not sure why we’re comparing the sports.

      But Seven (as their own publicity noted) won every night of the Australian Open.

      Including beating at least two T20s/One Dayers on Nine and most BBL on Ten.

  9. What a platform to launch new 2019 programs? Hopefully they commission a few good Aussie dramas or comedies and use this bumper sports promotional opportunity for maximum benefit.

Leave a Reply