Ch 9 Urged to Drop Cricket

Channel Nine urged by financial analysts UBS to drop loss-making cricket broadcast coverage

There has been some discussion here about the dwindling prospects of broadcast revenue for sports. Is this a preview of things to come?....

The Nine Network is being urged by bankers to end its long-time cricket coverage due to estimated $30-40 million yearly losses, placing Cricket Australia under a financial cloud.

The broadcaster has a five-year deal worth $500 million with CA which expires next year and is negotiating a new contract for 2018-2023.

But financial analysts UBS believe Nine should consider walking away from negotiations if a better deal is not offered.

"The existing cricket deal costs Nine circa $100 million per annum," UBS analyst said in a note to clients.

"We estimate the existing deal likely only generates gross revenues of $60-$70 million."
"We think it would seem logical for Nine to enter negotiations with the following mindset: i) more cricket content at no additional cost, or ii) to step away from the cricket contract."

The former option could include Network Ten relinquishing rights to the Big Bash League for CA to include the popular domestic Twenty20 competition under the new deal.

In terms of its international cricket product, CA is confident it will find a buyer.

"We are not concerned that there will be a lack of interest for our media rights," the body's broadcasting manager Ben Amarfio told Fairfax Media.

"Live sport, and cricket in particular, continues to be a premium asset."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-2...t-deal/8471958

It really pees me off how money rules (and ruins) absolutely everything these days. Sometimes I really do yearn for the old amateur days in sport :-(

Channel 9 paid overs last time around as they got forced into a bidding war because I think it was Channel 10 that had a crack the Test and ODI rights and Channel 9 had a "last offer" clause in the previous contract.

The Big Bash League will go for a ton of cash this time around as it dominates the TV viewing figures in Summer.

To be honest I would love Channel 9 to lose the Cricket rights solely because the commentary team on Channel 9 irritate the shit out of me during the telecast.

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Originally Posted by jargan83

Channel 9 paid overs last time around as they got forced into a bidding war because I think it was Channel 10 that had a crack the Test and ODI rights and Channel 9 had a "last offer" clause in the previous contract.

The Big Bash League will go for a ton of cash this time around as it dominates the TV viewing figures in Summer.

To be honest I would love Channel 9 to lose the Cricket rights solely because the commentary team on Channel 9 irritate the shit out of me during the telecast.

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I think there is a little more to it than that. Cricket has actually managed to lower it's value by trying to put more and more content out there, particularly meaningless ODI/20-20 "series". It's got to the point where many people - me included - can't be bothered with a lot of it. SANZAAR has applied the same principle to the 18 team expansion and is paying a potentially bigger price.

The Big Bash has spectacularly nailed a niche market during the holiday "sports quiet" period. Most importantly it's on FTA it's franchises have built tribalism and it builds to a Grand Final. In fact it's practically different sport sport.

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Originally Posted by shasta

I think there is a little more to it than that. Cricket has actually managed to lower it's value by trying to put more and more content out there, particularly meaningless ODI/20-20 "series". It's got to the point where many people - me included - can't be bothered with a lot of it. SANZAAR has applied the same principle to the 18 team expansion and is paying a potentially bigger price.

The Big Bash has spectacularly nailed a niche market during the holiday "sports quiet" period. Most importantly it's on FTA it's franchises have built tribalism and it builds to a Grand Final. In fact it's practically different sport sport.

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A lot of the International Schedule is planned years in advance via the Future Tours program (current schedule is mapped out to the end of 2020) so it's not like they are being added at the drop of a hat.

I do agree with the notion that there is a probably too much Cricket on especially in terms of meaningless 7 game ODI series and Australia playing a T20 here in Australia while the Test team (so most of the first pick players) are playing a Test in India.

Why do you need to watch one game of a meaningless series when the n ext is probably 2 days away.

Less is more in my opinion.

Cricket Australia could probably schedule the games better as well.

Tell you what, I can feel that saturation with test rugby too. It seems like we travel north or they travel south and play one-off tests every year, gets repetitive. Maybe they should space they teams out a bit more, play a few more three-test series with a couple of tour matches. May be a bit limited when it comes to touring one Celtic nation, but we could tour France again.

That is at least one thing I like about cricket, they may saturate the meaningless one-dayers and T20s, but at least we don't see the same test matches every year.

Kerry Packer just rolled over

So that was the tremor I felt.