Media reports this morning confirm that as expected, Cricket Australia have extended their existing rights agreement with the current broadcasters Fox Sports and Channel 7.
The Daily Telegraph is reporting that a deal has now been reached and an announcement on the highly speculated TV rights deal for the last available major sport in Australia for some years, is set to be announced as early as tomorrow.
TV Blackbox has confirmed the new agreement is worth $200 million a year over 7 years and reportedly will include a few changes to the existing deal, with the Big Bash League set to be shortened by around 20 games per season as well as Channel 7 now able to air Test Matches and the BBL on it’s free BVOD platform 7Plus.
As previously reported by this website, TV Blackbox understands that even with Paramount ANZ (Channel 10) being the highest overall bidder for all available rights, Cricket Australia were ultimately not willing to risk moving the bulk of the game to the relatively new streaming platform Paramount+ and the struggling broadcaster.
This announcement will come as a significant blow to the fourth place free to air network following a string of failed shows launched in 2022, and now losing out to another major sporting franchise after also failing to secure the AFL rights in September last year.
This post updates.
Being on 7 will be a continuation of their current disaster, they’ve killed the BBL. They need to put ODI and T20 on the main channel also.