Cricket Australia is looking to increase the asking price for its next domestic media rights contract after securing an expensive deal to broadcast games in India through Disney.
“We’ve got a great product,” Cricket Australia chair Lachlan Henderson said. “Cricket currently is undervalued in terms of its media rights.”
- In 2018, Cricket Australia signed a six-year, $809 million domestic media rights deal with Foxtel and Seven Network.
- Before the pact, Cricket Australia had spent four decades airing games domestically through free-to-air TV broadcaster Nine Network.
In July, Seven initiated court proceedings in Australia’s federal court in an effort to terminate its $310 million media rights deal with Cricket Australia, claiming that the national governing body of cricket has breached its contract.
Australian cricket’s Big Bash League, whose last two seasons were disrupted by the pandemic, is reportedly at the center of the dispute.
Seven reportedly saw its average national TV audience for the 2020-21 BBL regular season drop by 10%, while Foxtel reported a 28% increase with an average audience of 256,000.
The claim came as a surprise to Cricket Australia, which stated it delivered “two very successful cricket seasons.”
Cricket Australia Reach
In July, Cricket Australia landed a deal with Disney worth $250 million to broadcast games in India via Disney Star — an Indian subsidiary of the entertainment giant.
For seven years starting in 2023, Disney Star will air international matches and both men’s and women’s BBL games.
