The Guardian’s article.
Also an estimate of P+ subscribers from August at 400,000.
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But a one-stop shop with a dominant subscription platform isn’t necessarily a good thing - look at Sky Sports UK in the 1990s and early 2000s (before British Telecom set up BT Sport) and Sky Sport NZ.
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BT Sport is starting to fail isn’t? And Spark Sport in NZ just folded too?
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Spark ended their sports contracts just before Christmas
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Yep, Spark Sport is shutting up shop mid next year and BT Sport is merging with Eurosport UK into a joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery.
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I’m not sure there is an ideal outcome either
SMH had an estimate, not a month ago that was in the 100k range - wonder what the true figure is…
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This is a lot more than I thought.
The quoted limited reach comment is nuts. While that number is approximately a quarter of Kayo right now, it’s still substantial and viewers will easily be able to find the platform if 10 were to get the rights and market it properly during broadcasts.
Locking some matches behind the Foxtel/Kayo paywall will do consumers no good because I doubt Seven will go out of their way to tell viewers to switch to Foxtel/Kayo for an ad-free experience.
This is the one area where 10 had the advantage.
Oh well, what’s done is done 
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The only thing Foxtel needs to improve I think is to offer Kayo for free for those who subscribe to their Sports package - an issue not just for this cricket deal. Kayo has a few nice features that are missing via Foxtel Go.
The deal on the whole though is good for me as a Foxtel user but I am concerned about the ODIs remaining locked away. The crowds and excitement for these have been terrible recently.
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I wonder what the resolution to those rumblings about Cricket Australia’s digital rights is. Slow death of cricket.com.au or did Fox/Seven give up something there?
As with the AFL deal it’s a shame that the small positive to viewers of 7’s matches being on 7plus can’t be brought forward.
Sucks for Ten - but they had no reason to up their bid when they were already the high bidder.
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CA did want ODI/T20 on FTA & 7 did want international white ball but somehow it’s back to being exclusive to Fox. Wonder what happened.
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It’s not worth Fox paying the lions share if they don’t get white ball international exclusively.
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Was hoping that the first ODI or T20 of each series was going to be on free to air
I find it interesting the Comms Minister had no comment during all of this. She was very keen to get her name out there during the recent AFL rights.
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That drove C7 Sport out of business
Paramount have been battered in the PR game by News Corp, the messaging to promote the Ten brand was non-existent. They allowed both Fox and 7 to drive the narrative and double down on perceptions that Ten was incompetent without reprisal. I know it’s easy for News Corp given the extent of control they have over the media landscape, but Paramount could have used other outlets to give their point of view. Even the coverage they got in the 9-owned papers veered towards negative.
There has been stubborn pigheadedness or perhaps naive arrogance in how Paramount has approached these negotiations with the AFL or CA over the last year, they have certainly been badly advised in how to overcome corporate cronyism. They have not made sufficient attempts to build the relationships necessary for sporting authorities to look upon their bids favourably.
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I’m not sure 10/Paramount was ever going to get much from any arrangement with 7…probably just the BBL, which at least would have been something for them…but doesn’t make sense if it’s still not exclusive and shared with Fox. It seemed to me like the option was Fox + 7 possibly sharing FTA rights with 10 (Just the BBL which 7 doesn’t want) rather than 7 and 10 with no Fox.
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Definitely - and it makes me wonder how much was driven out of America where the media rights business is again different.
Australia’s big, but it’s still small enough where you make waves with newspaper articles or have personal relationships that count at times like this rather than writing a number on a piece of paper.
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I think 7 only wanted the Test cricket?
So if 7/10 joined then 10/Paramount would of had everything & 7 would of had the test cricket
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If there is a presser tomorrow as is anticipated and questions are permitted, I would hope that some journo would have the intestinal fortitude to ask CA if they consider commentating remotely as acceptable.
As a former media person (20+ years), and seeing/hearing the deterioration in journalism in recent years, I have no confidence anyone would want to ‘rock the boat’.
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