Cricket Australia “ripping off fans”: Seven boss

James Warburton has hit out at Cricket Australia, which is holding off renegotiating its broadcast deal at a lesser value – a move most other sports have made.

The look of the upcoming Australian summer of cricket is unclear. Picture: Brett Costello

Seven West Media boss James Warburton has hit out at Cricket Australia, saying it is “ripping off its fans” and it urgently needs to come up with a “reasonable outcome” to satisfy broadcast partners.

Waburton told The Australian Seven was deeply unhappy with Cricket Australia being unable to deliver a calendar of matches for the upcoming summer and the prospect of having to telecast the Big Bash League devoid of Australian national team players and international stars.

He said Seven would unlikely have a Test match to telecast until at least November, and potentially December, and was critical of mooted plans for Australian players to be placed in a biosecurity bubble that would hit the BBL, slated to begin on December 3.

“The BBL is likely to be hugely impacted (and) the standard of the competition will be compromised and this just rips off the fans,” Warburton said. “It is time Cricket Australia stood up and came out with a reasonable outcome for Seven and cricket lovers.”

Seven chief executive James Warburton. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

Seven’s cricket partner Fox Sports, owned by The Australian’s publisher News Corp, is also believed to be unhappy with cricket’s administrators and is considering its options. The broadcasters could even seek legal action against Cricket Australia, which has so far refused to contemplate a cut in its rights fees similar to those agreed to by the AFL and NRL.

Warburton on Tuesday also told analysts he was frustrated with cricket bosses and not impressed with the prospect of lower-tier players turning out for the BBL franchises.

“At the moment, you pick up the paper every day and you read four or five different things. You have got the Australian T20 and one-day captain saying one thing, you have got the coach saying another, you have got BBL franchises talking about no international players – or (having more) grade cricketers. We could send the cameras down for free to telecast grade cricket. We have paid a huge price for the rights and we need to understand very quickly what the season is.”

Warburton’s comments came on the same day Seven announced a near 49 per cent drop in annual underlying profit to $129.6m, hurt by a 14 per cent fall in revenue to $1.23bn. It booked a full-year net loss of $162.1m, including significant items before tax totalling $352m, relating to impairments and onerous contracts.

Seven pays about $82m annually to Cricket Australia in cash and contra over three instalments per year as part of its $1.18bn six-year agreement in partnership with Foxtel signed by previous Seven boss Tim Worner in 2018.

About half of Seven’s cricket payment is understood to now be included in its onerous contract provisions, signifying that the network believes it paid top dollar for the sport in what was previously a broadcast rights bubble.

Members of the Seven Network commentary team Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath, Bruce McAvaney, Mel McLaughlin, Lisa Sthalekar and Damien Fleming

In a statement, Cricket Australia’s interim CEO Nick Hockley said Seven “are a valued partner” and he was thankful for the support the network continued to provide to Australian cricket.

“We are confident we will provide them with fantastic content this summer – from our world-beating Aussie women’s team, to the excitement of the WBBL, to the men’s Test series between world superpowers India and Australia – that will entertain audiences and deliver for advertisers.

“Scheduling during a pandemic has no doubt been challenging, particularly when factoring in the added complexities associated with international travel, but solid progress is being made. We will be announcing revisions to our schedules once we have all necessary government exemptions and biosecurity measures in place.”

Warburton said he wanted discussions to turn into concrete proposals about the scheduling to give Seven programming and commercial certainty.

“Ultimately, when you look at the season, like the AFL and to an extent the NRL, they need to look at what is possible to deliver, stop talking about international borders being closed ... and start to look at what really is the season we are going to deliver,“ he said.

“Like we have done with the AFL, our obligation then is to really deliver something for the fans and the players and then put our best foot forward for all of our commercial partners as well.