Well, it’s happened. Cricket’s TV rights have changed hands for the next six years, with Fox Sports and Channel Seven picking them up in a mammoth deal.
There are plenty of questions needing to be answered and, luckily for you, they are all here in the one spot.
» End of an era confirmed: Foxtel and Seven snatch cricket rights from Nine
» Foxtel revolutionised rugby league on TV, can they do the same for cricket?
Who, how much and how long?
The new deal involves Channel Seven and Fox Sports in a joint agreement. Seven are essentially doing a swap from tennis to cricket, while Fox Sports are the big winners, adding every game Australia will play to their summer line-up.
The deal is touted to be worth $1.182 billion over a six-year period. It’s a big win for Cricket Australia, given the total value of the last deal was only around $450 million in total over five years. This is more than double that on a year-by-year basis.
Which cricket is going to be shown where?
The new deal, for the first time, will put ODI and international T20 cricket behind a paywall. Fox Sports will have exclusive coverage of Australia’s international limited overs cricket in a major coup for the network.
Test cricket, still on the anti-siphoning list, will be shown on Channel Seven and Fox Sports in a simulcast agreement.
The Big Bash League will be split between the two networks, with the finals still set to be shown on free-to-air TV through Seven. The season is expanded to 59 games in a home-and-away format, with 16 shown exclusively on Fox.
On the domestic front, the Sheffield Shield final and 13 JLT one-day series matches will be broadcast on Fox Sports, as well as tour matches.
Women’s cricket also receives a boost, with every international match and 23 WBBL matches set to be simulcast across the two networks.
Where does it leave Channel Nine and Channel Ten?
Put simply, neither network is going to be in a great spot without the TV rights to Australia’s iconic summer sport.
It’s going to leave Nine without any sporting content during the 2019 summer, something which is simply unheard of. They recently signed a new reported $60 million per year deal to show the Australian summer of tennis, but it doesn’t begin until 2020.
Seven having the tennis this summer potentially creates scheduling headaches though, with the network unwilling to broadcast the Olympics and Commonwealth Games across all three of their stations. Given the tennis is generally shown on 7 and 7TWO, it’ll be interesting to see exactly how the network juggle the sporting action.
For 40 years, Nine have had the cricket as the staple of their summer content, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can fill the void.
Ten will also be left without a major sports offering. Currently, they have one A-League match per week to go with the BBL, but it’s simulcast from Fox, is broadcast on ONE, and receives low ratings more often than not.
Without the BBL, their sporting line-up for summers to come looks bare.
With Supercars, Formula 1 and the A-League locked down, it’s unclear where Nine and Ten (the former for this summer at least) will turn to for sports content. The NBL is rumoured to be chasing a new free-to-air broadcaster, but with Fox Sports holding the rights, it would be similar to the A-League – a maximum of one or two games per week.
What about the World Cup and 2019 Ashes series?
Channel Nine already have contracts in place to cover all of the 2019 Ashes Series in England, the 2019 Cricket World Cup and the 2020 World T20, which is set to be hosted in Australia. Of course, that’s because those deals are worked out with the International Cricket Council and the England and Wales Cricket Board, who govern those events, rather than Cricket Australia, who only have control over cricket played Down Under.
Nine will obviously hold onto the deals for those events, but it could throw a spanner in the works nonetheless. For the 2015 Ashes, Nine sent their own team of commentators over to England – by the middle of 2019, they may not have a dedicated cricket team anymore.
The World Cup and World T20 broadcasts shouldn’t be effected, given Nine will simply pick up on the international English feed provided by ICC rights holder Star Sports, as they did for matches played during the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia, including those featuring the host nation.
What about other overseas cricket?
There shouldn’t be much of a change here. Fox Sports currently deal with overseas cricket boards to ensure all of Australia’s Test, ODI and T20 cricket gets shown back at home.
They will continue to do that one would expect, given this deal has no bearing on the showing of cricket played away from home. Cricket Australia don’t control it and without a big enough audience to interest free-to-air broadcasters outside of the Ashes, it will still be hidden to those without Foxtel.
Who will host and commentate?
Seven have put on show a deep stable of hosts over their Olympic and Commonwealth Games broadcasts. The free-to-air network are likely to be led by Mel McLaughlin, who did a superb job when she was with Ten and hosted the Big Bash League.
McLaughlin has been at Seven since before the 2016 Rio Olympics and is likely to have a big role in their coverage over the summer, given she has usually worked on their tennis coverage.
Jim Wilson is another hosting name who springs to mind. With plenty of cricket to be shown, including likely double-headers in the BBL, one host isn’t going to be enough, and Wilson has been another fixture of their tennis and multi-sport event coverage.
In terms of commentators, it’s hard to say exactly what is going to happen.
For Fox Sports, it would pay to look at their model simulcasting the NRL, where they have their own commentators, hosts and broadcast graphics. It’s likely it will all follow over to the cricket, and they would be expected to use the talent already on their books first and foremost.
In coverage of previous overseas cricket, they have used names like Brendon Julian, Allan Border and Mark Waugh. They will also need to chase outside their boundaries, with plenty of cricket personalities now looking for a new home.
Nine’s host, Mark Nicholas, along with all their commentators – Shane Warne, Michael Clarke, Ian Chappell and Michael Clarke just to name a few – as well as Ten’s Big Bash League team including names like Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting and Mark Howard will all be up for grabs.
It may also be an opportunity for new broadcasters to be introduced, but all will be revealed in due course.
Taiabada
Roar Rookie
Rubbish! True lovers of the game want to see ALL games possible. The Australian Govt made a big deal of this when anti-syphoning was broughy in and should reinforce and extend the rules, particularly for cricket's biggest and most consistent fans, the 80+ y/o Pensioners who like me raced to the SCG after school to watch the great ones. If it can't be done by Govt Rule, maybe it can be done by forcing Sky, Kayo, etc, to give aged pensioners automatic right to membership of their service, which would cost them nothing.
Marjorie Szabo
Guest
You seem to have covered all your bases but what about your cricket fans? What about pensioners who’ve supported cricket for years and kids from families who can’t afford Foxtel ?
Rich
Guest
It was Stephen Conroy. Funny that an ex-pom is making decisions on the future of Australian cricket. Not good at all.
Rich
Guest
I've watched just about every cricket match on Channel 9 for the past 40 years. I wagged school, took holidays from work to coincide with The Ashes, even flew from Beijing to watch Gilly smack an ODI record on TV at the Kangaroo Bar in Hong Kong. I can vividly remember the Centenary Test, the underarm bowl, Viv Richards hitting tracer bullets into the dog track, Mark Waugh's maiden century, and just about every Shane Warne delivery ever televised in Australia. But I am not paying for TV. Ever. I'm just not. Furthermore this money-grab better not affect the quality of our players in years to come because this sport is not a game. It is national pride. NO amount of money can ever buy that. Very disappointed indeed, Cricket Australia. Shattered, in fact.
Robyn Waller
Guest
I am so distressed, for weeks now I have been watching advertisements on 7 proclaiming that we will see all matches all summer!!!!! What absolute BS. I have just found out that FTA coverage will be quite restricted - and I was so looking forward to Australia v South Africa tomorrow. As an age pensioner there is no way I can afford pay tv and there must be many many others in the same situation. Distressed? More like furious. Channel ten sold off the F1 and we are left with a pathetic maybe 40 minutes of actual race. I suppose the almighty dollar will soon make sure we less financial members of the Australian public miss out on more tennis and probably swimming as well. I wish I was a netball/basketball/AFL/ARL/football fan as so far these have remained in the public domain but unfortunately I am not. Losing faith in all commercial channels, love the ABC but unfortunately it does not have the $$to compete.
Garry Searle
Guest
So I won't be watching 50 over cricket anymore unless cricket Australia does a deal similar to what the NRL does with telstra. Cricket Australia has a lot to answer for, typical won't admit to their part in the sandpapergate and abandoned all the cricket fans that can't afford to get foxtel as you need to get some other crap before you can get sport costing $50.00 plus a month. Sold out by Cricket Australia it just not cricket
Steve rowe
Guest
What channel is the JLT cup 2018 QLD vs VIC
Dave
Guest
You claim all questions are answered but you haven’t addressed the obvious one - how do they get around the antisiphoning laws? Under the legislation Foxtel can only get the rights to ODI and T20I games if no free to air network has bought the rights, or has failed to acquire them after having a reasonable chance to do so, within thirty days of the event. So what has happened here is clearly a fix to get around the law. Seven buys the rights and then gives or sells them to Foxtel 30 days out. But that is hardly giving the free to air networks a reasonable chance of buying those rights, which obviously means buying them to use them. This deal was about selling the Test rights to Seven on the proviso that they don’t use them but allow Foxtel to have them. Obviously a complete sham and something the regulator (ACMA) must block. Otherwise Foxtel just gets around antisiphoning by buying the rights off an FTA channel at a higher price, which is hardly any different from being able to bid for the rights in the first place.
Ed
Guest
I have a 75 inch tV and you want me to watch ODI on an iPad are you serious .i am already paying for Netflix and FetchTV for the EPL unless it's ten bucks a month for the cricket on TV I can't afford it .i believe sport pack on foxtel is forty bucks a month bet cricket will be an extra fee
bear54
To paraphrase Marie Antoinette "let them watch Free to Air TV".
bear54
Seriously Anon? What's your job at Foxtel? Marketing perhaps???? Every one of your posts sound suspiciously like an ad for Foxsports. For the record, I hate the idea of paying for something I enjoyed on FTA all my life and the thought of voluntarily giving my hard earned to Rupert Murdoch makes me gag.
bear54
Foxtel told me to get Foxsports I have to buy their other channels? If its possible to get Foxsports like Netflix or Stan for $10 a month then I could cop it but if I have to spend extra dollars on the rest of their programming then I'll just listen to the ABC.
anon
Roar Pro
Foxtel is great value for money if you like watching live sport. If I didn't have Foxtel I'd end up going to a pub to watch a game 1-2 times per month. I don't know how people put up with commercial FTA television.
Dave
Guest
What a disastrous idea to have someone like Jim Wilson anchor the cricket coverage. I had to turn the Olympics coverage off to avoid his cliche filled faux-macho voice. If people are getting stuck into Nine about stale coverage- has anyone seen the mindless nonsense that Seven serves up for the Commonwealth Games? I’d rather have a tired Ian Chappell anecdote than some fool asking another swimmer how does it feel doing it for Australia, in front of this great crowd. What does Wilson know about cricket? Mark Nicholas’s plummy accent may not be to everyone’s taste, but he knows his stuff and hangs the coverage together very well. We actually need more guest overseas commentators- Michael Holding, Sunny Gavaskar, Michael Vaughan (even though he never did time for ball tampering in 2005), Graeme Swann - just please, please, no Kevin Pietersen. On the deal, it sounds like CA took an extra $100 million over what Nine or Ten were offering at the cost of losing FTA coverage of ODIs.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
Legislation trumps contracts. If Nine/Ten/ABC/SBS put a bid to Foxtel, would Fox be forced to sell (simulcast rights) to the highest of those bidders? After all, that would show - in the timeframe required - that an FTA network is willing to show the event. Supposedly the law is there to ensure that those events will be on FTA if any FTA network wants them.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
The ratings for the 50 over game have been in decline, but still quite strong. Attendance has dropped considerably, overall audience not as much.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
Is the back-footage owned by Nine, or by CA? Seven/Fox may have rights to show those highlights if they are CA owned - which the last 10-15 years probably are but I'm not sure of that.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
The "mucking about" is exactly what made them utterly horrendous. Not that I expect Seven to be any better, judging by the fact that think BT is a star f their AFL coverage.
tim
Guest
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Timmuh
Roar Guru
Well, what if Nine, Ten, ABC or SBS make it clear they are willing to show them. Can Foxtel be forced on-sell rights even if at a considerable loss? Or is this the first major abuse of a gaping hole in the anti-siphoning laws?