Flexibility of free-to-air, streaming the wildcard

Should Cricket Australia walk away from Foxtel and Seven at the end of broadcast negotiations, it will be gaining one thing the current partners cannot offer: flexibility to move games out from behind the paywall or back again once a contract has begun.

Where the deal with Foxtel and Seven carved cricket up into distinct free-to-air and subscription portions locked in for six years, the emergence of Ten/Paramount as a genuine contender for the rights has much to do with flexibility as well as money.

Network Ten once made the Big Bash League sing. Credit:Getty

Industry sources have told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that each of Ten/Paramount, Nine (owner of this masthead) and Foxtel had made bids for all the content being offered by Cricket Australia, including Tests, international white-ball games and a Big Bash League still modelled on a 61-game season. Seven has bid to retain its coverage of Test cricket.

After two rounds of formal bidding, which placed Ten/Paramount at or near the front of the queue on a dollar basis, other broadcasters have pointed out that Seven and Nine are by a distance the most-watched free-to-air networks in Australia, noting how the likes of the A-League and horse racing have struggled for audience share on Ten.

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