This is all very interesting, I (as surely many) were positive Seven would on-sell.
I guess they want Nine to sink to a new low next summer? It’s also telling that they still want those two weeks of ratings before MKR (after all, it was Seven themselves who made a big deal about “winning every night of Aus Open”).
Although I personally wanted to see the rights be on-sold to Nine in the interests of fairness, at the same time I’m not overly surprised that Seven are deciding to keep the tennis for that one final year.
With the rights to horse racing, golf, cricket, the Sydney to Hobart yacht race and tennis it should be quite a bumper Spring & Summer in the ratings for Seven!
The real battle will be between Nine and Ten! Movie marathons?
In all seriousness, let’s PRAY that doesn’t happen, hoping for new local content, etc. As (seemingly correct) sources told a masthead some months ago (if Nine lost everything next summer) they’d already “planned a contingency”… Wonder what it is?
Don’t worry, Nine and Bruce have resolved their differences and he is giving them plenty of programming advice. Both Nine and Ten will be fully stocked with all your mini-series needs from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s for family marathon nights complete with bedtime at 8:30pm and probably network closedowns at 10pm, just like the olden days.
Why does there need to be a separate host? One thing I always found odd about 10’s BBL coverage. If you have talent in the commentary box, utilise it.
Olympics, tennis sports where the host links different events or matches together sure, but cricket is unnecessary. Same with AFL on Friday when Hamish hosts.
I guess what they mean is Ponting will be Seven’s main analyst - it won’t be like Gilchrist being the ‘face’ of Fox’s coverage since the latter has established himself as a presenter