It doesn’t make it right. The sports that have exclusivity flourish on FTA with the marketing push of the network and the relationship between the sporting body and the network.
All of the simulcast deals are duds. This does not happen to the same extent in other international markets. It seems to be more of an Australian phenomena. I blame News Corp.
it’s also not good for the sport itself. less viewers watching means less people playing. it was a known factor into the current state of cricket in england
It also breeds complacency in the broadcast offering
I disagree - what we have seen thanks to these deals is a significant uplift in the quality of the broadcasting, it has also allowed these sports a payday that an exclusive deal would never deliver. The reality is that the days of FTA exclusive sport are basically gone
Plus tours going on elsewhere in the world, in Australia, NZ, South Africa take out at least six teams full of the world’s best players.
Maybe 20+ years ago. Hard to say this is a valid argument anymore because the only thing exclusive to FTA are Olympics, Aussie Open and State of Origin, both special events and not week to week coverage.
Correct. Free to air exclusive sport was a rather quaint Australian thing when the rest of the modern world had moved to partial/full paid offerings. The reality is, given FTA is dying a death it doesn’t have the same financial pull and can’t afford to subsidise these sports to the extent they used to.
10’s production quality was far better on BBL games than anything Seven brought to the table - in my opinion, they drove exciting cricket coverage into more bland and boring.
Channel 10 have always done sport extremely well so it gets me beat why they want to exit sports coverage.
I much rather would have liked Channel 10 to have the cricket rights over Seven/Fox. I hope they do return to covering cricket once this current deal is up. Give the people what they want!
Seven never really wanted the cricket. If it wasn’t because of Nine getting tennis they would’ve definitely preferred the Australian Open which was so successful for them for so many years.
I’m fine if they ditch cricket as well. They’ve got the AFL to rely on which is pretty big for them and they can also save some cash to invest in some new formats (or use their existing slate) for Summer. If 10 can do well with I’m a Celebrity over Summer non-ratings then I don’t see why Seven can’t if they invest in first-run programming.
Seven are also complaining that the BBL will be played at the same time as matches involving Australia and Australia A depriving the competition of top players.
Don’t think Fox simulcasting State of Origin would make it a “less premium” event. While yes it would mean the FTA ratings would be lower, those three games would still be big drawcards.
While the NRL simulcast arrangement has hurt Nine, I would argue it’s worked out well for Seven when it comes to the AFL. While there’s been the obvious ratings impact, the numbers they get (particularly in Melbourne) helps them win weeks regularly. Additionally, the nature of the simulcast arrangement sees Fox showing not just Seven’s broadcast but ads they sell (between quarters & at HT) as well.
In regards to your 2nd point, it’s starting to happen to a limited extent in other countries. For example, new cricket deals in England and New Zealand has/will result in certain international T20 matches being simulcasted on pay TV (Sky/Spark Sport) and FTA (BBC/TVNZ). As well, there’s also speculation surrounding ABC potentially simulcasting ESPN’s Monday Night Football as part of the next NFL rights deal.
Considering how badly Cricket Australia have burnt bridges with the commercial FTA networks, they potentially could have a really hard time in their next rights negotiation
Yep with what they’ve done in recent years and their attitude I wouldn’t be surprised if all three commercial networks tells them to get stuffed at negotiation time if they want to keep Fox in the arrangement (and frankly they should).
I’d like to know what Seven propose to do to remedy this - punching a hole in the international calendar just gives an opportunity for another board to fill it (like India did this year).
Next they’ll complain about the colour of the bails, or that there are too many sixes (remember they’ve got form here, they wanted AFL rule changes so more goals were scored)
I think it is about time that Channel Seven gets rid of the cricket. Seven boss, James Warburton slammed this as a ‘Train wreck’ and it is ‘not an acceptable product’ for the sporting code. I cannot believe what has gone wrong for Channel Seven’s cricket coverage. With cricket on Seven and Fox Cricket, look at the ratings for Channel Seven. I think the simulcast with Fox is a dud. Test Cricket on Channel Seven was much lower than on CHannel Nine (when they previously had the exclusive rights). You can see why Channel Seven’s ratings were lower because of the disgusting simulcast deal.
And same for the Men’s Big Bash League. Previously Channel 10 had the rights to the BBL (from late 2013 through to early 2018). Cricket Australia decided that the BBL would be given to Channel SEven and Fox. Channel SEven’s BBL ratings were lower than Channel 10 because of the dreaded simulcast deal and the fact that the season was too long. I blame Cricket Australia and Fox Sports for this disgusting simulcast deal because they’ve done a huge damage to the sporting body. Sadly, there’s no ODIs and T20 Mens on FTA. I feel that Cricket Australia has breached the Anti-siphoning law and that they should be shamed with themselves.
The sooner Channel Seven loses the rights, the better. Channel Seven’s cricket coverage is very poor. I wanted to stream via Seven Feed but unfortunately, they don’t because of Fox Sports. If people want to stream the cricket, they will have to subscribe to Kayo.
I think Seven should rather focus on first run programming over summer in a bid to boost ratings and their revenue.
About time? Hasn’t it only been 1 year?
Two years?
I’m regards to Test match ratings. Been a bit unlucky. No ashes yet. India came in 18/19 with Smith/Warner suspended. 19/20 was very one sided. Full strength vs India this summer should be much better plus Ashes in 21/22.
Even under these simulcast deals, we get a lot more tv coverage then other major sports around the world do in their home country.
It seems to work for their AFL coverage though?
ABC always uses ESPN’s coverage (both owned by Disney) for sporting events.
Robert craddock was on SEN talking about the cricket rights saying that all the free to air networks have been offended. He then went on to say that 7 has a secret clause in the current contract this was his quote.
Craddock warned Channel 7 are in a position to take legal action against CA due to a secret contract clause.
“You must deliver a product which is the equal or better to the one you delivered last year. It’s in the contract,” Craddock said.
“Now this year’s Big Bash, palpably, with all those players missing, will be inferior to last year. If they want to go to court, that’s the contract clause which would get them out of televising the Big Bash.
“With 30 players missing, it won’t be. I really get Channel 7’s protest here, I really do. And all that we’re talking about here stretches back to one word — Greed.
Of course this is coming from Newsltd. Gee which just happens to be the big winner if all free to air is cut… funny that. They are pushing this hard.