If you are a fan of the Australian cricket team, life is about to get tough.
As highlighted on The Roar yesterday, at this point of time no contract has been inked to telecast in Australia the upcoming T20 World Cup out of India.
Neither a commercial free-to-air network nor Foxtel have agreed to the rights fee being charged by Star Sports, the media outlet that controls the rights for the event.
Hopefully a deal can be reached before the tournament starts next week although time is running out.
TV coverage or not, one thing is guaranteed, there will be no radio coverage of the event broadcast into Australia.
Alas for cricket fans, this will likely be the future with respect to radio coverage of overseas Australian tours.
Sadly, given the ABC‘s ongoing budget battles, it appears that in all likelihood it will only cover ball-by-ball overseas Ashes series in the future.
With all overseas tours now – with the exception of the Ashes – being televised on Foxtel, the lack of ball-by-ball coverage from the ABC means that for all those who do not have pay-TV there is no free-to-air electronic broadcast coverage available to Australian cricket fans.
Last month’s Test tour of New Zealand was the first in decades not to be broadcast on ABC Radio. Cricket Australian streamed Radio Sport New Zealand‘s commentary on its website which was not ideal given the heavy, and understandable, bias.
The ABC broadcast ball-by-ball the 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2008 tours of India but it has not provided commentary of any Indian series in the past eight years. Having broadcast every Test tour of the West Indies from 1983-84, the ABC has chosen not to cover the last two series.
The ABC covered the 2009 and 2011 Test tours of South Africa but not last year’s. I was lucky enough to be part of the ABC–BBC broadcast team that commentated the 2009 T20 World Cup from England.
The ABC has not covered the past three tournaments, and as mentioned, will not broadcast this one either.
In light of the ongoing budgetary tightness at the national broadcaster I would think it highly unlikely that any of the tours that have gone by the wayside of late will ever be reinstated.
With that in mind, it is a concern that our highest profile national sporting team will, at best, be largely available only to those with the necessary income to pay for it through subscription television.
Cricket on the radio has long been synonymous with the sport.
I know especially from covering three Test tours for the ABC to India that the audience was enamoured with the sounds that came through the wireless – often produced via a mobile phone when the broadcast lines fell over!
The likes of White Line Radio – which has a strong affiliation with The Roar and with whom I have waxed lyrical on occasions – has called several overseas tours utilising the TV coverage and it is growing an audience (it had over 30,000 listeners during the recent New Zealand tour).
That alone shows the fact the cricket audience is crying out for some form of free-to-air coverage as the White Line Radio broadcasts carry no sound effects from the ground and are broadcast from the lounge room of one of the participants by a group of volunteer amateur broadcasters doing it largely for fun.
With the ABC now principally out of the equation for overseas series, Cricket Australia needs to consider launching its own dedicated audio coverage for overseas tours, especially the Test component, to allow those that do not have pay-TV to follow the matches.
Like Fairfax Media‘s radio coverage during the Australian summer such a coverage could easily carry advertising and a naming rights sponsor thus greatly reducing the costs to Cricket Australia, if not in fact, returning a profit.
Cricket Australia could additionally make it a subscription service with a modest fee vastly less than what it would be to subscribe to Foxtel on a yearly basis.
Given the ABC and Fairfax both cover the domestic summer I would not see it necessarily a need for Cricket Australia to enter the market there.
With smartphones and tablets the way of the future for a lot of audio content Cricket Australia could command a significant audience.
For those who wish to follow the game audio streaming is ideal.
I fear that without the ABC‘s coverage of key overseas tours, Test cricket and its following in this country will be for many fans, simply a summer event. It would be a great shame.
Our highest profile national sporting team deserves to be accessible to the public for all its major series worldwide. Having had discussions with Cricket Australia about the future broadcasting of free-to-air Australian tours I am aware it is considering it.
For the good of all us cricket fans it needs to quickly become a reality.
Jay
Roar Rookie
I'm happy just to keep an eye on the ball by ball coverage on the internet for all overseas series' besides the Ashes.
Jeffrey Dun
Roar Rookie
Naturally. I'm no expert on the CPI index, but it looks to me like we have experienced inflation at around 30% over the last 11 years. If so, then the ABC has enjoyed a real increase in funding of around 10% over this period. My point still stands, if the ABC does not broadcast overseas cricket it is because it is not a priority for them; not because of insufficient funds.
Alex
Guest
Interestingly enough, NZ have also passed on negotiations. Fox will pick it up I'm sure. As for FTA, the rest of the world pay, why is Australia any different! Where do you think cricket makes it's money. CA have given the rights to Fox, CSA have given the rights to Supersport, NZ have given the rights to Sky, India have given the rights to Star...the list goes on.
Homer Gain
Guest
Time to stop this anachronistic weeping over paying for stuff. I'm constantly amazed at the allegedly cash-strapped (including nuermous supposedly impoverished "refugees") who flash the latest smart phones around and seem able to log on to the internet at will. If you can afford a fancy smart phone and the associated download rights you can afford pay-per-view/listen.
fp11
Guest
google is your friend
fp11
Guest
You know what inflation is right?
Johnno
Guest
Redsback Gen-X which is before Gen-Y man. Dingo Gray, you may of warmed to T20 but I haven't how old are you round abouts. Are you from my generation? I don't find cricket Australia is trying to market very hard to my demogprahic. Whitle middle class 35-40 straight male out for a male centric good time. I find CA's marketing of T-20 is more geared toward family friendly atmosphere, women and children,teenager and adults under 30 aged 18-30. It doesn't seem to really want to pitch to my age range. Where as I find Test cricket pitches far more to my age range and demographic in style. And ODI cricket seems to be the ultimate diplomat/neutral, it seems to pitch to everyone all ages, and cultures. I don't mean this in a sexist way, but I've never seen beer wenches for example at T-20 games, at Test cricket I see loads of those F1 grid style girls serving middle aged men drinks or men over 30, rightly or wrongly it happens in Tests not at T20. Also I see far less of the blazer brigade at T20 matches, than at Tests. But yep I don't feel much love at T-20 for men born between say in 1975-85, far more love for men born between 1986-1995 at T20 games in who the game is marketed to these demographics etc. Test cricket as I repeat from above seems to market far more to my age range. Heck even some of the cricket commentators in Test cricket are older, a lot of the younger ones do the T20 and far less of the tests.
Johnno
Guest
lol
Paul D
Roar Guru
That point of view is just as biased and irrelevant as the people who bemoan that the ABC is full of lefties.
Jeffrey Dun
Roar Rookie
"Yes it is a given operating budget every year that is continually tightnened by right wing hacks who hate an efficient and neutral government operation that it can’t control the content of." I checked your assertion of continually tightened budgets for the ABC. The ABC received a very small increase in funding in 2015-16 (1.064 billion) compared with 2014-15 of $1.063 billion. But if you go back to the good old days of 2004-05 (chosen at random), when the ABC broadcast a larger coverage of Australian tests overseas, their funding was $756 million. In other words, their funding over the past 11 years has increased by 41%. These figures are available in the Appropriation Acts for the relevant years.
Jackota
Guest
ABC employs over 5000 people. Produces 100 times the content that other free to air stations provide with a budget equal to one of those stations. Yes it is a given operating budget every year that is continually tightnened by right wing hacks who hate an efficient and neutral government operation that it can't control the content of. Blame the ABC for doing a great job to maintain a great standard even though it's budget and standing is continually attacked?
Bakkies
Guest
Used to be linked to ESPN which is Disney owned. Murdoch's tv companies are run as separate entities that have varying competitors. Chuck in other rights they have to pay for such as the European soccer leagues which are costly. Sky Sports UK only have the Premier League, Copa del Rey, Italian Cup and Eredivisie maintained for next season. BT have stumped up a fair bit for La Liga which Sky weren't willing to pay. They have lost the Champions League to BT so chucked in a massive amount for the Premier League. The Indian Cricket Council have a lot to learn from other sports such as Rugby when running World Cups. Not a chance that the IRB would leave tv rights to the last minute particularly in a major competing country.
Peter
Roar Rookie
Maybe I don't Google well but the free streams I find are really crap quality and you keep on having to clicking stuff to remove various ads.
JGK
Roar Guru
I thought Star Sports was owned my Murdoch (as is half of Foxtel). So the price should be mostly irrelevant.
My2cents
Guest
CA is definitely buddying up with 9 and fox. Last summer I had a paid subscription to the app, and despite it fully streaming the TV broadcast with adds. You couldn't even watch it full screen on a computer
Bakkies
Guest
'Really disappointed recently with Foxtel overall attitude towards what was their Major strong suit of broadcasting as much sport as possible. ' A lot of it is to do with rights outside of Australia. Sky Sports in the UK seem to have cut down on their cricket coverage in the past two years as well. For a World Cup tournament overseas broadcast rights should be handled by an international organisation like IMG not the host broadcaster. Typical of the Indian Cricket Council to trust an Indian broadcaster to hand out the rights and as a result are overcharging.
Paul D
Roar Guru
A cheap radio subscription option, preferably one that also comes in the form of an app for live online streaming would be an excellent addition to the coverage.
Disgruntled ABC Cricket Fan
Guest
Totally agree Jeff. ABC spokesman Nick Leys:"It would affect too many of our scheduled programs: breakfast shows and things like that." This is something they've never had a problem with in the past 30 years. Maybe Mark Scott just hates cricket. :( Seem to remember Jim Maxwell and the team going over 5 years ago. These changes might just represent a change in our national broadcaster's focus.
JGK
Roar Guru
Surely it would be pretty easy to do a "synthetic" test coverage these days. Lock your self in a room with the cricket on Foxtel, the computer open on cricinfo and stream the commentary.
Wally Border
Guest
Thanks for a great article, Glenn. Just a minor correction, the ABC did cover the 2014 South African Test tour. I have fond memories of Mitchell Johnson ripping through the Proteas top order.