As expected with this toxic cricket rights deal.
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And we’ve still got what 4 years to go. Well done CA.
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They’ll go close to killing the sport.
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The worst part about this deal is that with the gradual decline in FTA ratings, you’d think Cricket Australia will maximize their potential by full exposure on FTA and streaming. Instead they chose the stupid path of being locked behind a paywall and FTA only getting a ‘sample’ with no streaming, leading to the acceleration of FTA decline than help stablize FTA decline.
If only Fox was cutting costs when negotiating the rights, then they wouldn’t have stood a chance.
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A 10% drop on fox sports is huge. They can’t afford to lose people this quickly; the more this happens the quicker the cuts happen.
The next 12mths in sports rights is going to be very interesting; one whom get them and 2 how much is paid for them.
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The Reasons why ratings are down on Fox. Possibly due to fox sports plans to cut staff following financial losses. 61 match competition for BBL Franchise is too much.
No wonder Channel 7’s ratings during the summer period is lower than Channel 9 due to tennis. I think Tennis is becoming a Number 1 summer sport in Australia due to ratings.
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As mentioned by others, if Adelaide and Perth realised they have remotes and can change the channel from 7 to something else than 7 would be in a massive hole.
Even this week with some massive games at the tennis Seven still won in Perth!
As for cricket, CA killed the goose that laid the Golden Egg. Afternoon games in the middle Of the week and in summer isn’t smart.
On top of that Adelaide crowds have dropped by approx 12,000 per game! Normally every game after X-Mas is sold out, this year one. And they couldn’t even get Australia Day sold out, which in the past has been the home of cricket on that day.
Nine got lucky with two things, getting out of the cricket when the sand paper happened and picked up tennis when Australians finally found form; in particular Barty.
Ten is the unluckily loser, well what seemed to be at the time, but they have to hold steady and hit any sports hard with good negotiating, which in the past has been poor.
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You have to remember that Seven’s ratings for test series against NZ were up by around 10% from last summer’s series against India. That increase doesn’t compensate for the fall in BBL ratings.
It’s a mystery to me how anyone can calculate the change in ratings of the BBL on Seven over time given the number of different codings that Seven put into the OzTAM system. One thing I have noticed is that when the consolidated numbers come out 7 days later with the time-corrected ratings the BBL numbers are nearly always lower than what was originally reported in the overnight numbers.
I think this analysis also validates the criticism that Network 10 had of Seven when that network boasted in a tweet that the ratings for BBL were higher than I’m A Celebrity by using the “reach” numbers. Not only was that not a valid comparison, it also ignored that I’m A Celebrity is replayed the next afternoon on 10 and has a considerable consolidated audience as well as a 10Play audience. In short, 10’s reality line-up has really damaged the sport especially with the decision to go early this year.
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In regards with Johnson’s Post:
I feel that with the Day Night Test in Perth stadium, ratings have been up on the east coast. However the crowd numbers failed to crack the 25k mark at Optus. Something needs to be done to increase numbers, otherwise it will struggle.
I looked at the attendances and noticed that’s crowd numbers are in decline since the BBL06 season. It must be Due to CA wanting some BBL teams to play 2ndary venues. A Melbourne Derby at the Mcg failed to go past 50000.
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It’s a worrying trend for 7 and CA. They expanded to 61 games this year but crowds are down.
Even Adelaide Oval was empty on Australia Day for the Strikers game
THe thing about BBL09 is that CA has revamped its BBL Finals system with 5 teams in the final. Having 5 Knockout matches is too much. Think about other people. Students have returned to school after the summer holidays. I Predict that the ratings for the bbl final will be down from last year, though it will be in a prime time slot.
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The system is an eliminator followed by the Page Playoff format
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That article does mention the tennis, but points to Kyrgios and Barty. I think especially since the Aus Open has started, along with ■■■■■■■■, you can see truly how many want to watch BBL cricket on Seven. The tennis matches have (nearly each night) been thrilling or at least entertaining, not seen on such a level in quite some years and Celeb has been good.
It’s interesting how the shortened Big Bash schedule was cited as a result of last year going way too long, yet audiences have continued to fall!?
More than anything the commentary Seven is providing is boring. The Big Bash is supposed to be fun and relaxed and yet the commentary feels far too serious for mine.
I really liked what Triple M radio used to do for the Tests by having two cricketers and a comedian as a 3rd person to generate discussion. Seven should be looking to Lehmo, Lawrence Mooney, Mick Molloy, Sam Pang, Marty Sheargold, Fitzy etc. to help make things a bit more fun next year.
Genuinely make it fun and viewers will stay regardless of the cricket quality. At the moment viewers are fatigued and tune out if things get too one-sided.
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I like Jason Richardson though not on Big Bash have next summer off. Alister Nicholson to call more matches and also Alison Mitchell to call matches in between Test Matches. If still short of commentators give Jason Bennett an opportunity. Erin Holland experiment hasn’t worked
The idea of having Erin Holland is because she did a good job as reporter on Pakistan Super League. It also allows Abbey Way to travel less and spend more time as co-host on this season of House Rules.
Also BT or Hamish
The problem is the additional afternoon games are a direct response to the (legitimate) complaints about last season’s drawn-out BBL schedule. The only viable^ way the schedule could be ‘compressed’ so that the home & away season finished when school holidays ended was to have more afternoon games.
^ I say viable because the BBL season can’t begin earlier (would not only clash with day/night tests but would run into the same issues as the drawn-out schedule) nor can games be played simultaneously for obvious reasons
Ten have actually come out as a winner - they took a gamble on airing ‘I’m a Celeb’ at the start of the year and its paid off for them two years in-a-row with the show getting decent ratings
Don’t know if what Triple M did would necessarily work on TV in much the same way Triple M Footy’s commentary style probably would receive a mixed response if a TV network tried to replicate it
Sam Pang would be good and he does know a bit about sport so should work well
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