SMH has reported first round bids were due on Friday
Nine submitted an offer to air Test matches and the Big Bash League across its television network and Stan, as did Paramount (and it’s free-to-air partner Ten) and Foxtel. Incumbent partner Seven is asking for Test matches but did not submit an offer for the Big Bash League.
Who do people think will get rights?
Since the article says that Nine and Ten has bid for both Tests/BBL but Seven hasn’t, I doubt the latter will get rights. I reckon it will be either Nine/Stan or Ten/Paramount+.
I’d say so.
Seven do need to go hard, otherwise they will have nothing post-AFL.
I know Nine won’t simply walk away from its 40-year relationship with ACB/CA. It is trying to get the best of both worlds (tests & BBL, and Australian Open series).
10’s not a partner, it’s Paramount’s FTA network.
Petty I know but could you make it 2025- instead of + to bring in line with the rest of the rights threads? 
Foxtel is likely to make this one a bit more difficult to sort out - they’ll want a continuation, but without an FTA partner (and some resistance likely to “FTA” being delivered via streaming means) is likely to work against them.
For all of CA’s meddling to keep Foxtel in the game in the last rights agreement will be interesting to see if CA wants to continue the partnership or not.
What the actual bids translate to in dollar terms will be one to watch too - we already know that a significant portion of the next deal doesn’t exactly have the best matchups under the forward tours program and it’s well established that the current deal is paying overs. Could we see a drop in the value of the rights for a major sport?
No
That’s their biggest problem. They have no-one other than 7 to go with. They need home cricket, otherwise they are void of subs-grabbing sport over summer.
I certainly don’t think we’ll see an increase in the value (unless there is a crazy long time involved).
I don’t see why they would shut them out or anything. They’ve not been a problem (although they have really phoned it in a bit when it comes to coverage recently (COVID aside), much like the end of their A-Leagues deal).
How can CA enter a good faith negotiation with seven giving they’re being sued by the network. They should be told to go away.
10 really need this.
Interesting 9 just want the tests.
Who knows if CA in splitting the rights again like they did in the past. 9 with the tests and 10 with BBL and international T20 and ODIs.
The AFR reporting Paramount is most "ambitious"to do a deal and have the funds to make a competitive bid considering they missed out on the AFL and the US dollar is currently very strong.
I wonder if Tests would be moved to a multichannel or if AO will? I reckon BBL will be on 9Gem during AO but AO will be on 9Gem/9Go during Tests.
If Seven don’t want BBL, I think Foxtel can do either of these things:
They’re gonna include them in the process to make it more competitive. Whether they go with them or not in the end is another question. If Seven offers the most, then why would you say no? They’re coverage has not had any problems on-screen to warrant pushing away in that regard.
No they want both:
I think they’ll just do the one company this time, given the subscription streaming element this time around that will be included.
Not great timing to have issues with their streaming platform
The issue with going with Foxtel is likely to be how they get FTA coverage - Seven may be interested, but Nine & Ten will want exclusivity for their streaming platforms. Whether CA will entertain another round with Seven is another factor in this.
Not all that surprising - they can get the Tests over by the time the Tennis starts and shunt the BBL to a multichannel
Yeah most likely. Would be interesting to see what they would do. Not envious of the programmers…
Nine and Paramount won’t partner.
Fox can do what they like from Seven’s point of view.
I’m interested as to where the Women’s game would end up.
It was an Apple problem though, wasn’t it? And CA would probably include them having to fix and upgrade it all.
No I agree. There isn’t a way forward in my mind that is actually beneficial to the game.
Not surprised if this happens with whoever gets the rights. BBL on the multis.
That’s actually a really good point
I’d really like to see Nine get the rights back. When you think of Australian cricket, you think of Channel 9 and Wide World of Sports.
But realistically, I think Seven and Foxtel will continue. CA will have no choice but to significantly lessen the value of the rights to appease Seven. CA will do that because they’ll want Foxtel to remain involved in some way so that the Fox Cricket channel can continue, and Foxtel are only going to partner with Seven.
Besides, Seven need the test matches, at the very least. Without it, their summer schedule is bare.
The channel will remain. They have enough content, don’t they?
There’s no point in Foxtel running a dedicated cricket channel if they don’t have the rights to broadcast any cricket.
They do mate. They have more than just domestic matches…
Home series of other national teams
Other tournaments
…among more.
I’m getting an impression CA is about to ghost Seven on the next series of rights. Seven’s conduct throughout their period has been despicable to say the least and not one company (even one with a despicable attitude themselves in Cricket Australia) would want to deal with Seven.
I hope 10/Paramount gets the lot. They’ve done great with the sports they have so they’ll be fine with cricket.