The Australian has a similar report to the one in SMH and The Age today. The Australian says:
Seven and Nine are understood to have pitched only for the rights to Tests – each putting forward just north of about $50m per year for the five-day format, according to industry sources – while Ten/Paramount+ and Foxtel are believed to be interested in the “all of cricket” option, which would include rights to Tests, one-day and T20 internationals in Australia, as well as the domestic T20 competitions – the BBL and the WBBL.
CA’s urgency to strike a deal before Christmas is twofold - one, the governing body wants to capitalise on a market in which broadcast rights for live sports is running hot (both the AFL and Tennis Australia have secured big money in the past couple of months for multi-year TV deals); and two, cricket bosses have concerns that the BBL might continue its downward ratings trajectory, and thus be less appealing come next year.
That article seems to suggest that CA are willing to leave some money on the table due to a reluctance to partner with Ten to broadcast Test cricket. However, I’m inclined to speculate that this is more due to CA ensuring Foxtel retains a piece of the pie. I won’t be at all surprised if Fox wins the rights to everything at a premium price, with Test cricket and part of the BBL sublicensed to a FTA network (at palatable terms for 7 or even 9).
I feel like the 10/Paramount option is the best for viewers.
If it is Nine/Stan/10/Paramount who shares Cricket, fans will have to sign up to Stan and Paramount Sport, which will cost them $40 a month just for Stan Premium/Sport + Paramount+.
If it is 7/Foxtel, I feel like Foxtel will try to get BBL/T20/ODIs all behind a paywall just leaving tests on FTA by using the anti-siphoning list as BBL, T20 and ODIs aren’t on the list. This will destroy the BBL and Cricket in Australia even further putting it behind a $25 paywall and is by far the worst option for viewers.
However with the 10/Paramount deal, you could get BBL/Tests on Ten and all matches on Paramount+ for a cheap cost of $8.99 a month. This is by far the best option for viewers, and especially the average household who only wants to pay for 1 or 2 streaming services due to inflation.
While Ten under Paramount/CBS ownership has continued to struggle, I do think cricket and Test Cricket in particular is still a strong enough property to draw viewers to the network (i.e. it is something people still go out of their way to seek out). We even saw this with the Big Bash to an extent in the previous contract. By comparison, A-League and NBL are still relatively niche, while the Melbourne Cup Carnival is hardly exclusive given the races are on Sky Racing and Racing.com as well (not to mention Seven counterprogramming with NSW racing).
I would suspect there would be some things exclusive to Paramount+ in order to justify the investment. Maybe ad-free coverage on Paramount and bonus camera angles, and perhaps certain BBL games and/or ODIs/T20Is behind a paywall as well. In the case of ODIs and T20Is and even some BBL games I could also see 10 showing partial coverage (e.g. 1st innings highlights only before the run chase in full live) in order to try and entice viewers across to P+ (while still providing something decent for 10 as well)
Or highlights of ODI/T20/BBL on 10 at around 11.30pm? It will be a throwback to the 1980s and 1990s when Nine showed late night highlights of tests and ODIs in the host city of those games, with partial live coverage during the day.
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