Channel 9 set to cut cricket radio broadcast rights
After four decades, Channel 9’s iconic cricket commentary is set to finally come to an end as another network takes over the station’s remaining broadcast licence.
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The last link to Channel 9’s iconic cricket commentary is set to be severed in the latest change to cricket’s broadcasting landscape.
News Corp can reveal that Nine Radio, owner of the defunct Macquarie Sports Radio, is set to give up its broadcast rights to Craig Hutchison’s Sports Entertainment Network, leaving cricket with one exclusive commercial radio partner and the ABC.
Under the previous arrangement, SEN and Nine combined on the one licence, so in essence Cricket Australia has not lost a partner with the shutdown of Macquarie, and in fact should increase national exposure now SEN has new stations in Sydney and Brisbane.
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On Tuesday night, Nine sources said they were still the rights holders, but industry sources say the licence will change hands, as early as this week.
Nine still has a presence as owner of archival rights, but in many respects it’s the end of an era, given commentators Ian Chappell and Mark Taylor had continued calling the cricket on radio even after the network gave up the television rights two summers ago to Channel 7.
Cricket Australia is still waiting this to get approval for a summer that will see the first Test played in Adelaide (Dec 17-21), Melbourne (Dec 26-30), Sydney (Jan 7-11) and Brisbane (Jan 15-19). A white ball series will be played in Brisbane in late November.
Former Nine caller Ian Healy has a show on the new SEN and there is still the potential for the likes of Chappell and Taylor to be targets for a new team – but it won’t be under the famous Nine banner that had such a rich association with the game dating back to Kerry Packer and World Series Cricket.
Ironically, Channel 9 boss Hugh Marks has left the door open to buy the Test match TV rights back again “at the right price” if Channel 7’s acrimonious war with Cricket Australia ends up in a messy mid-deal divorce.
On Tuesday morning, Seven West Media filed papers for an arbitration process over the value of its rights deal for the 2020-21 summer.
Cricket Australia is reserving all rights as to how they might respond, and internally there’s a feeling at Cricket HQ that the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration may not be the right jurisdiction for such a case – because Channel 7’s complaints pertain to a COVID-19 affected year, not the entire deal.
Channel 7 believes the verdict from an independent expert appointed by ACICA will be binding.
“Cricket Australia this morning received a letter from Seven and is awaiting a response from ACICA,” said a CA statement.
“CA looks forward to working with all its valued partners to deliver a safe and successful summer of women’s and men’s international and domestic cricket.”
While both Seven and Fox Sports have paid the first third of their instalment for the 2020-21 Australian summer, Seven West Media believes that even with the proposed schedule, Cricket Australia is in breach of contract and must offer a significant discount.
The administration claims, however, that it will deliver. The situation has seen Seven chief executive James Warburton launch a series of scathing attacks on the sporting body and the BBL.
The relationship between the two parties does not appear to be improving.
Cricket Australia claimed not to have been notified of the move until it happened while Seven maintained it had advised the body.
As the stand-off continues to play out, England cricket chiefs say they were saved from “oblivion” by fulfilling their broadcast commitments – but still lost $200m in revenue.
Australia has budgeted for a $30m biosecurity bill, but the England experience suggests costs and lost revenues are difficult to predict.
“Being able to deliver on those broadcast commitments has frankly saved us from financial oblivion, and obviously not just us but the rest of the game too. It’s as stark as that,” ECB chief executive Tom Harrison said this week.
“The ECB has lost more than £100m of revenue and 800 days of live spectators in stadia,” Harrison added.
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“The consequences of that are now being felt by people across the game who are losing livelihoods and are going through some very, very difficult moments in their lives.
“Right now at the ECB we are going through the painful process of becoming a smaller organisation coming out of this summer.”
Harrison predicted 2021 would be a “very, very difficult” summer for the game.
“We’ve got plans that envisage 2021 being a similar year in respect of what we would have to do to cope with a £200m ($360m) loss for example, by way of a fairly medium case scenario of us losing another year, it could easily be worse than that. You can’t just keep losing hundreds of millions of pounds without their being an impact.
“We don’t underestimate what’s ahead of us.”
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Channel 7 commentator Michael Slater has admitted his concern over the network’s TV rights war with Cricket Australia and is hoping for a speedy resolution.
Slater is currently in Dubai calling the IPL, but will return home early to help anchor Channel 7’s coverage of the WBBL starting later this month in Sydney.
Channel 7 is set to take their dispute to an independent tribunal next Tuesday to seek an independent valuation on the new rights value, although Cricket Australia have told them they’re not within their rights to do so.
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The ugly standoff still has the potential to end up in court, and Slater, one of the stars of the Seven stable along with Ricky Ponting and Mel McLaughlin, says he shares the anxiety of cricket fans worried about what it all means for the future of the game in Australia.
“I think the cricket community in Australia would be concerned as to what’s going on there. My current alignments are with Channel 7 and, of course, I want it to be sorted out and I want to be commentating as normal,” said Slater, who was speaking as part of his foray into affordable online cricket coaching for kids, with innovative new-start-up SLOCOACH.
“It could be an interesting summer because of coronavirus, but a brilliant summer because of the Indians being in Australia.
“My want is that it gets sorted out so we can settle as we run into the season.
“If I think of the larger Australian audience who love watching free-to-air cricket, international cricket, I think everyone would be hoping it’s going to get sorted out and sorted out soon.”
Channel 7 claim CA has breached its contract, and at the heart of their concerns is the Big Bash League, and a belief the value of the product will be heavily compromised if there are international stars absent and matches are played in neutral venues.
Cricket Australia has removed three one-dayers towards the end of the BBL which should give the tournament a golden burst of having all Australian players available leading into the finals.
Slater has called on the Big Bash to follow the benchmark set by the Indian Premier League if they want to make Twenty20 cricket sing on television screens, even without a crowd.
“Honestly, they’re setting the standard. (The fake crowd noise they’re using) sounds fantastic. There was the real applause when there was a boundary, the hint of a buzz around the ground and they’ve certainly not overdone it or underdone it,” said Slater.
“I didn’t know how they’d be able to make it feel like it’s meant to feel.
“But when you look all around the ground they’ve got all the banners across all the seating, full of colour so you don’t even see the vacant seating.
“Then in the lower part (of the ground) is this incredible LED screen that flashes up all sorts of things. They’ve done it so well.
“In terms of the BBL they should be looking at this and really trying to take instruction from how the BCCI and Star TV did it over here. It’s blown me away, it really has.”
Originally published as Channel 9 set to cut cricket radio broadcast rights