Seven, Cricket Australia war escalates
Seven confirmed it had lodged an affidavit in court seeking emails between Cricket Australia & its Indian counterpart, the BCCI.
- Published by David Knox
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Seven’s battle with Cricket Australia has escalated with the network seeking access to correspondence with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Foxtel and state governments.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports Seven confirmed it had lodged an affidavit with the Federal court in Melbourne seeking emails between CA and its Indian counterpart, and could allege a breach of contract has occurred.
Seven is furious that the international calendar for 2020-21 was flipped on its head, with limited overs matches between Australia and India that are exclusive to Foxtel starting the season, rather than the original plan of having the Test series, which Seven shares with Foxtel.
Seven is unhappy that the Big Bash League will next week start in hubs in Canberra and Tasmania, which it argues may not have been necessary despite state government regulations over COVID-19.
Both parties are also awaiting a final call from arbitrator the Australian Chamber for International and Commercial Arbitration (ACICA) tasked with determining what value Seven’s cricket rights should be worth in a summer of upheaval.
CA has offered Seven a 20 per cent discount on its rights for this summer, which amounts to about $15 million, but the sport wanted those savings split over the rest of the contract, meaning a markdown of $3.75 million a year. Seven rejected this.
Sunday’s second ODI between Australia and India was the most-watched ODI ever in subscription television history.
13 Responses
To put it simply ,if the then CEO Tim Worner signed the deal of $75M per year and had included the ODIs and T20s they’d all be happy campers at channel 7 ,they paid their money and they have to live with that although I can see why they now have a biff with CA who’ve bent over backwards to help india.
I’ll be first in line to buy the book on this rights deal when someone hopefully gets around to writing it. From Ten thinking they had everything stitched up, to the 11th-hour deal with Seven with barely a mention of white ball cricket going to Fox, to Barham moving to Seven then quietly departing soon after, to the subsequent decline of the BBL, and now the very public spat between Seven and CA. It’s a ripping yarn.
Seven and Cricket Australia need a mediation and fresh start, partners should be partners. The leaked texts to media between bosses from both today are cringe-worthy.
Nine are paying $300m for tennis and already have costly NRL/Origin and now $100m Rugby Union, as well as other sports, expensive program deals, other expensive assets and scheduling conflicts.
10 have all but said goodbye to sport (Melb Cup was under previous management) and besides them and CA hate each other, remember…
So where would Cricket Australia go if Seven’s contract was torn-up? Serious ramifications happening here, not good for anyone.
…and yet, with all this he said / she said going on, Seven are still trying to convince advertisers and viewers that they are excited about the cricket? How do they sell it to us when they have openly admitted how much of a dud the deal is
Nine had the Summer of Cricket, Seven has Some of the Cricket.
Ch7 would have had great ratings if they had the ODI and T20 on free to air like ch9 did but chose not to. They got themselves to blame.
Of course it’s the most watch ODI on Pay TV, it’s against India and it isn’t on Seven. It’s of course still a fraction of what Nine used to get in it’s heyday.
Seven was forced into a bad deal by Nine poaching the tennis and they want out of it. They are hoping that CA’s negotiations with the BCCI, Foxtel and Aboriginal Activists will provide grounds.
Seven were not forced. That is factually incorrect. They chased the cricket and 9 came back with the Tennis, I think 9 were ok with the cricket leaving due to cost of production.
Well if Seven don’t want the cricket, they should sell it back to Nine where it rightly belongs. Then Nine would should all test games and all one day games free to air.
Seven don’t have the rights to the one day games (it was their choice not to purchase those rights).
Am watching this unfold with interest. Seven knew it had paid too much for cricket well before Covid-19 came along, but is now using the pandemic (and the subsequent schedule changes) to try and get out of their contract.
The relationship between CA and Seven West Media must surely be beyond the point of repair. Seven are doing everything to get out of this expensive contract.
that they willing signed