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Unless a minor miracle happens, it looks like Australian cricket fans will not be able to watch the upcoming World T20 tournament, which begins in a fortnight on Wednesday 16 March.
As yet no Australian broadcaster has been able to secure the rights to televise the tournament. Indian TV station Star Sports, from which the rights need to be purchased, has reportedly asked for a price much higher than Australian stations are willing to pay.
The ICC sold off the rights for all major tournaments through to 2023 in 2014, and in that deal Sky Sport gained the rights to broadcast in the UK and Star Sports gained the rights to broadcast globally.
In order to get broadcast rights in other nations, networks now need to purchase those rights directly from Star Sports. Both Australian and also New Zealand networks have so far not been willing to pay the asking price for the World T20.
This impasse is compounded by the fact that a network purchasing the rights would also need to pay an additional fee worth about 30 per cent of the purchase price to cover the tax on the deal in Dubai.
The Nine network, which has broadcast the World T20 in the past, has confirmed that it so far does not have the broadcast rights for the tournament, and other major networks Ten and Seven have stated they will not be broadcasting the tournament.
The World T20 is on Australia’s anti-siphoning list which means it cannot be exclusively broadcast on paid TV services, unless no free-to-air networks elect to buy the rights to broadcast within twelve weeks of the event.
We are well within that period now, however, Fox Sports, which has always broadcast the event in partnership with Nine in the past, is also yet to secure a deal.
As time drags on it is looking more and more likely there will be no deal done, and Australian audiences will miss out on watching the World T20.
Free-to-air networks are required to broadcast the event on their primary channels which makes a deal for them unlikely at this stage, as this would require them to hurriedly reschedule much of their first choice programming coming up over the next month.
Fox Sports looks to be Australia’s best hope for securing a deal. While the price is reportedly prohibitive, both Fox Sports and Star Sports fall under the Rupert Murdoch media empire, a situation that hopefully might see a compromise brokered.
Until then, Australia cricket fans will just have to hope.