It does. How many people are going to tune in to Zimbabwe v Bangladesh compared to Australia v England? They cannot justify a dedicated channel for all these games where barely anyone in Australia will tune in.
There’s no AFL content (other than draft, AFLW, trade period, preseason), and NRL (other than NRLW, preseason, Super League, international matches) content outside of their seasons. Cricket is all year.
The next rights package will have one more Ashes tour than the current one from memory. So that should see an uplift in the rights.
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Never said anyone was. But then by your reasoning they should stop Fox Footy and Fox League outside of the seasons. And they should stop Fox Cricket when Australia isn’t playing.
The last test match is normally the Sydney Pink Test in the first week of January, and the AO starts later in the month, so there shouldn’t be a problem with an overlap. The BBL during the AO period would present an interesting scheduling challenge, especially during the first week with AO coverage on both Nine and 9Gem.
Live Pause & Rewind
If they were able to start the second season of the A-League with a fit-for-purpose platform I’d agree with you, but it’s clear they still have fundamental issues. We’re not talking about some kind of emerging technology here, live sports streaming has been around for some time now, if they can’t improve the platform by the end of the A-League season serious questions will be asked as to why.
Local or in England?
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Like I have said, I think Seven should trade T20s/ODIs for BBL with Foxtel if they want the deal to continue with CA. Foxtel will fight hard to get the rights extended.
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Where did they say this though?
Local. I remember reading the future tests program will include 2 local ashes and 2 local Indian tours to extract maximum value from the rights.
There’s only two series in the FTP, right? One away (2023 on Nine) and one at home (25-26)?
For reference of everyone here is the FTP:
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Surely everything’s lining up for a successful 10 bid here.
7 suing CA. Don’t want BBL.
Fox only have 7 as a potential partner with 9 and 10 wanting everything.
9 reportedly about to sign a new deal with the other big summer sport. Yes they say they could have both, but the only other time it’s happened, 7 were happy to flog one off.
10 reportedly the most keen and cashed up.
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That was a different scenario though. Seven had lost the rights the next summer so there was no incentive to keep showing it. Plus Nine came and offered to take the extra year.
I believe they get strong ratings for overseas matches involving Australia. So I am sure they will keep it
You would have to assume Nine’s bid would be the lowest or not as genuine, considering the tennis. Them wanting BBL, as well as 10 is very interesting indeed, maybe they think CA are too invested in seeing its resurgence (if that’s possible) and not having that as part of a bid would see them knocked back immediately, whereas Seven no surprises are more bullish. But with everything that went down with 10 last time, still awkward and hard to see how/ why it might eventuate.
Foxtel definitely in the best position and also to dictate all the FTA terms (as bacco alludes and Stan and Paramount+ makes that very difficult - those two platforms are probably the make or break for a Nine or 10 bid anyway), which could see some walk away/ give up. Perhaps putting Seven in the box seat, even if not ideal and fractious.
If Nine get both tennis and cricket, boy oh boy.
But the rights will go through to 2030 so there will be another ashes home test in there surely. There was an article about this earlier this year. I could be wrong but they were trying to beef it up to get more money.
Live Pause shouldn’t even be a feature it should be expected. Season 2 and they can’t even deliver on that. As much as the 10 fanboys here will think it’s coming home, CA would be wary of partnering with a technology platform that doesn’t seem to have any technological inclination.
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If the debacle that was 10’s bid for the AFL rights is anything to go by, it shows that they can’t be taken seriously for the cricket rights.
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What are they offering for free to air. The scraps. No control of the online and streaming. They’d be mad to go with these idiots.
There’s also new management at CA. The people who did the deal last time are gone.
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They had them before, so why change now?
I reckon it’ll be Stan having rights to full matches and live games and Nine having a selection of BBL and Test.
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