Galle: Australia may be about to enter a new era of overseas Test cricket on free-to-air television as Seven prepares to broadcast the Sri Lanka series starting this week, a harbinger of future bidding for matches in India and elsewhere.
According to two industry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, Seven has held talks with Amazon Prime about sharing the rights to June’s World Test Championship final at Lord’s, although the streaming platform has so far rejected those entreaties.
Steve Smith bats in Galle in 2022.Credit: AP
The championship final is not on the federal government’s anti-siphoning list.
Seven swooped on the rights for the Sri Lanka Tests two weeks ago, after reports emerged that the series could go without an Australian broadcaster, breaking with years of apathy about such series from free-to-air networks.
Over the years, broadcast rights for non-Ashes Test series outside of Australia have tended to follow a pattern.
Without much genuine interest from other networks, Foxtel has generally been able to secure coverage near the start of the series, saving dollars by leaving it late.
That appeared to be happening again for Australia’s series in Sri Lanka, starting on Wednesday, until all parties got a shock: Seven had won the rights for the Tests.
Previously, only two Test tours of South Africa (1994 on Nine and 1997 on Seven) and one of the West Indies (1995 on Ten) had made it onto free-to-air TV. All those tours took place in an era before multi-channels or digital streaming
On one level this series was expedient by Seven, given the late January/early February timeslot well clear of football. Australia have not played a Test match overseas this early in the year since January 1970, during a tour of Apartheid South Africa.
But those close to the network insist that it is part of wider play to get more cricket onto its television and digital platforms, based on booming audiences for the World Test Championship final in 2023 and then for this summer’s India series.
Seven now views these series as commercially attractive for the right price, and will weigh up their timezones, calendar slots and potential advertising revenue accordingly.
At the same time, there is now some uncertainty for Foxtel following the pay TV provider’s sale to DAZN, which reportedly required a $1.8 billion loan from banks to shore up the deal’s financing.
Previously the most reliable broadcaster of the Australian team overseas, Foxtel’s strategy shifted when it became the biggest single financial backer of Cricket Australia by taking the lion’s share of domestic broadcast rights deals worth $1.18 billion in 2018 and $1.5 billion in 2023. That investment meant Foxtel had less money to spend on overseas matches, and it has since given up rights to World Cups.
Those are now broadcast in Australia by Amazon Prime, which also holds the Test Championship final at Lord’s in June as part of the same deal with the International Cricket Council.
That match, despite being the pinnacle event for Test cricket, is not subject to federal anti-siphoning legislation, but free-to-air networks have recently queried that state of affairs.
When asked about simulcast talks, Amazon pointed to its 2023 deal to be the exclusive broadcaster of ICC events in Australia until 2027.
As it stands, the Sri Lanka matches will be seen by a much bigger Australian audience than the Test finale.
Two Test matches at once
The Sri Lanka rights were purchased by Seven in the knowledge that the network would also broadcast the women’s Ashes Test at the MCG from Thursday. That will mean a dizzying array of multi-channel changes, although each game will be shown uninterrupted on 7plus.
For Mitchell Starc, the prospect of the men’s and women’s team being seen on free-to-air TV at the same time on opposite sides of the globe is heartening – provided audiences can keep up with all the channel changes.
Test captain Pat Cummins takes a selfie with fans in Galle in 2022.Credit: AP
“I think fantastic that it’s all on free-to-air,” Starc, Alyssa Healy’s husband, said in Galle. “It’s never been on from this part of the world. Great too that both Tests are on at the same time, so you can see both Australian Test teams compete through the same week.
“A massive one for them, pink ball Test at the MCG, a chance to really bury England, they’ll really enjoy that, and for us we started so well on the last tour with the win in the first Test, but didn’t go on with it, so it’s another chance.”
Seven’s head of sport Chris Jones told this masthead: “With exceptional cross-promotion within our broadcast, Seven’s coverage will continue to cross between Test matches, to ensure Australians are kept across the action from Sri Lanka and the MCG. If there’s a major moment, our audiences will know about it.”
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