Foxtel may need to explore a new partner for cricket

Pay TV company Foxtel and Network Ten were the two broadcasters that once made the Big Bash League one of the most valuable propositions in Australian sport.

As Paramount, the parent company of Ten, continues to lead the bidding for Cricket Australia’s (CA) next broadcast deal, Foxtel could be forced to work with its former rival if it wishes to keep cricket in its summer suite for viewers.

A meeting between Foxtel and Paramount executives last month generated fresh talk that the pay-TV company is considering an alternate reality to working with the cricket’s incumbent free-to-air television partner, Seven.

Foxtel is weighing up options for a world without its free-to-air broadcast partner Seven. Credit:AP

Foxtel was CA’s domestic rights holder when the BBL launched in 2011, and played a pivotal role in growing the profile of the tournament before the governing body sold the rights to Ten for around $20 million per season in 2013. That was then spun off into a huge rights uplift with Seven and Foxtel in 2018.

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