They’re on the record as not wanting any of those nonsense simulcast deals.
Paramount will spin this one hard, but its hard to fathom that its something outside of Paramount’s control.
Paramount’s inability to deliver the basic functionality promised for the A-League rights should raise questions - Paramount arent exactly a small player, but the quality of their streaming offering is making them look very second rate
I wouldnt be so sure - but then again they have NRL/AFL channels that spend a decent amount of the year broadcasting repeats
I fucking hope they drop them.
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Correct. All or nothing for them (and rightly so).
What did they promise?
Initially yes but by 2025 they’ll have that sorted out. What’s happening right now isn’t a reflection of technological advancements and refinement to the platform in 3 years time.
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My point exactly. They have enough cricket content to get by. And losing the home rights isn’t going to stop them getting overseas rights.
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But it’s the Australian matches that make them $$. They’d be running at a significant loss if they run a dedicated channel to showing matches involving countries we have minimal interest in watching.
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It doesn’t work like that.
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Though I’d argue NRL/AFL are more popular than cricket, and both football codes run for 6-7 months each year with the local summer of cricket in Australia only lasting 3-4 months.
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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