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Catastrophic Champions Trophy TV ratings threaten future sales

Junaids

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The ICC uses a bizarre and idiosyncratic way of selling TV rights for its tournaments.

Whereas FIFA and the International Olympic Committee sell their TV rights country by country, the ICC takes a different position.

It sells the worldwide rights to a single winning bidder, which then in turn sells on the rights country by country. In this case, it is the Indian broadcaster Star Sports which holds the worldwide rights to every ICC tournament from 2015 to 2023.

And it was Star who insisted that the ICC convert the 2017 World Test Championship semi-finals and Final into the ODI Champions Trophy, without first obtaining any support from broadcasters outside Asia.

The single worldwide sales model had already failed disastrously by the time of the last World T20, when Star tried to demand a ludicrous bid from Australian TV, which made clear that interest in the tournament was almost zero, as was the fee it was prepared to pay. Every Australian terrestrial and Pay-TV broadcaster gave Star the same message. In the end, with every Australian broadcaster declining to pay Star's inflated asking fee, Fox Sports Australia took the rights at the very last minute for almost no fee at all.

SOURCE: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket...t-ball-in-star-tvs-court-20160225-gn473f.html

http://www.theroar.com.au/2016/03/06/nine-fox-sports-secure-world-t20-broadcast/

This year's Champions Trophy has fared even worse for the ICC's beleaguered model and for Star TV's bank balance.

Ratings on Australian and New Zealand TV have literally been so appalling that not one match has even registered a rating. In both countries, barely any cricket fans even know that the competition is taking place, and sports fans are preoccupied with AFL and Rugby League in Australia and Rugby Union in New Zealand in June, with interest in an unknown ODI tournament on the other side of the world practically non-existent.

https://decidertv.com/page/2017/6/1...ill-after-icc-champions-trophy-washout-foxtel

In England the story is even worse.

In spite of the tournament being hosted there, and being the first international cricket broadcast free-to-air on the BBC for years - and in the local time zone - ratings have been utterly catastrophic. England managed to eke out a paltry 200,000 viewers for their first game on free-to-air TV for 12 years, and it has been downhill from that point onwards.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/...-champions-trophy-ratings-england-highlights/

The TV ratings disasters leave the ICC's model for selling to a single bidder looking more foolish than ever. All the broadcasters in the "white" countries can now argue that interest in ICC ODI tournaments is effectively too small to measure, let alone justify any significant payment at all for the TV rights.

The ICC doesn't care - it has already sold the worldwide rights to Star TV for 8 years, from 2015-2023.

https://www.icc-cricket.com/about/partners/broadcasters/icc-broadcast-partners

But Star TV is left with a basketcase of an investment, in which it has to try to recoup money having paid ludicrously over the odds for global rights which, it now transpires, are practically worthless.

And in the future, who would risk being the single bidder for worldwide TV rights for ICC tournaments, now that it is clear that those rights are practically worthless outside India?
 
I have to slightly correct you, the bbc is only showing highlights and at stupid times in the night. I record them and then watch them at an appropriate time. Their coverage is almost nonexistant on tv although their radio coverage is good..pay tv is killing cricket in England and it is a slow very very slow death..
 
The test championship would still fail.

A test tournament will never work. What we really need is test league that runs over 2 or so years with the highest ranked team being crowned the champions at the end of the cycle.

And forget the TV rating for those countries all those countries care about is test so the TV ratings for those countries were never gonna be great anyway.
 
BBC just has the highlights. and even then the schedule is at around 23:15 - which is very late. Channel 5 did the same thing when they showed England games at weird times. At occasions highlights were being scheduled for after midnight.

Either way I think Sky have ruined fans' appetite in paying so much. It was better when BBC and Channel 4 had the rights.
 
This isn't surprising at all - cricket always has been and always will be a summer sport in Australia.
 
BBC arent broadcasting it live. They show highlights at 11pm or later and they hardly advertise or hype up the show. So a lot of people wont be watching the highlights live but will watch them on iplayer at a more suitable time.

It still attracts live crowds n the fact pakistan and most likely india will make it to the final will add a lot more eyes and prestige to the CT as a trophy. Those markets are hundreds of millions of people who will be watching the final on Sunday. So whether English or Aussies watch it wont matter to ICC as much. As long as Star Sports keep buying the rights then ICC is fine.

Also in the U.K u can watch all the fours sixes n wickets on the cricinfo app.

So CT isnt dying or will it be going anywhere soon
 
Firstly, the highlights show on BBC is close to midnight after its available everywhere (incl the bbc website & youtube etc) and isn't something to talk about in relation to ratings.

Secondly, the Champions Trophy rights belong to Sky Sports who show the matches live, and then show the highlights at 8pm, 3 hours before BBC highlights! + its the highlights are uploaded online to all mobile devices.

So you have to ask yourself, what level of audience actually remains after all that to watch highlights on a week night at 11:15pm?

The article above obviously has an agenda.
 
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BBC arent broadcasting it live. They show highlights at 11pm or later and they hardly advertise or hype up the show. So a lot of people wont be watching the highlights live but will watch them on iplayer at a more suitable time.

It still attracts live crowds n the fact pakistan and most likely india will make it to the final will add a lot more eyes and prestige to the CT as a trophy. Those markets are hundreds of millions of people who will be watching the final on Sunday. So whether English or Aussies watch it wont matter to ICC as much. As long as Star Sports keep buying the rights then ICC is fine.

Also in the U.K u can watch all the fours sixes n wickets on the cricinfo app.

So CT isnt dying or will it be going anywhere soon

Please don't say that it doesn't fit OP's agenda. He won't tell us how after calling it a tournament for sub continent teams and fans alone now he is now trying to bring everything else in picture to put CT down. He won't tell us about the fact that CT game between England and Australia was a full house and odi attendance record at Edgbaston but still tells us that no one in England knows CT is happening.
 
Whoever foolishly sanctioned the 11:20pm scheduling slot for the highlights on BBC should not be surprised by these low viewing figures.

How can you claim you want to grow the game to a wider audience, especially youngsters, if you schedule the highlights at such a late time ?
 
Firstly, the highlights show on BBC is close to midnight after its available everywhere (incl the bbc website & youtube etc) and isn't something to talk about in relation to ratings.

Secondly, the Champions Trophy rights belong to Sky Sports who show the matches live, and then show the highlights at 8pm, 3 hours before BBC highlights! + its the highlights are uploaded online to all mobile devices.

So you have to ask yourself, what level of audience actually remains after all that to watch highlights on a week night at 11:15pm?

The article above obviously has an agenda.
But nobody is watching the Sky Sports live coverage either!
 
Whoever foolishly sanctioned the 11:20pm scheduling slot for the highlights on BBC should not be surprised by these low viewing figures.

How can you claim you want to grow the game to a wider audience, especially youngsters, if you schedule the highlights at such a late time ?

Maybe because it's not a prime time event? They know it wouldn't do great in prime time.
 
Maybe because it's not a prime time event? They know it wouldn't do great in prime time.

Channel 5's highlights at 7pm of England's home internationals has done a lot better in ratings than BBC's CT highlights well past 11pm.
 
Yeah exactly BBC aren't showing live games. Sky have been showing cricket for ages now and if it was actually on Channel 4, ITV or BBC for free I'm confident matches would attract large audiences. As for AUS/NZ that's pretty sad nobody knows the tournament is going on there and the fact there teams didn't make the semi final go well with that. The model of selling it simply to Star Sports sounds very bad.
 
Star TV will recoup any losses and make shed loads from just the Final on Sunday.

I was hearing in the radio that 400 million people watched the Mohali semi final and it is in the top five or six most watched programme ever.. correct if I heard wrong.

Imagine if 400 million tune in to Sunday's final.

Also, begs the question how much money would tv channels make from India Vs Pakistan Bi lateral matches!!
 
Channel 5's highlights at 7pm of England's home internationals has done a lot better in ratings than BBC's CT highlights well past 11pm.

I think channel 5 highlights also had commentary from Swann, Nicholas, Vaughn etc
Whereas the BBC highlights are just a repeat of the sky highlights so you get nothing different...
 
[MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION]

Don't worry about star TVs investment. They are making huge bucks off this. Old white folks with one foot in the grave aren't anyone's target market
 
I have to slightly correct you, the bbc is only showing highlights and at stupid times in the night. I record them and then watch them at an appropriate time. Their coverage is almost nonexistant on tv although their radio coverage is good..pay tv is killing cricket in England and it is a slow very very slow death..

Is it BBC 5 that shows the highlights ??
 
[MENTION=59262]shaaik[/MENTION] bbc one and two show the highlights for CT. But there is no analysis or anything just highlights.

channel 5 have the rights for highlights of englands home bilateral series.
 
[MENTION=491]IMMY69[/MENTION] yeah Channel 5 Highlights have their own analysis n commies so it feels different from the Sky coverage. Boycs Nicholas Vaughan are all good commies.

BBCs coverage is very lazy none of their own analysts or commies just show highlight version of what u see on sky.
 
[MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION]

Don't worry about star TVs investment. They are making huge bucks off this. Old white folks with one foot in the grave aren't anyone's target market

This is amazing!
 
Star TV will recoup any losses and make shed loads from just the Final on Sunday.

I was hearing in the radio that 400 million people watched the Mohali semi final and it is in the top five or six most watched programme ever.. correct if I heard wrong.

Imagine if 400 million tune in to Sunday's final.

Also, begs the question how much money would tv channels make from India Vs Pakistan Bi lateral matches!!

Indo Pak bi laterals would be a money spinner, but nothing compared to tourney matches.
 
Star TV will recoup any losses and make shed loads from just the Final on Sunday.

I was hearing in the radio that 400 million people watched the Mohali semi final and it is in the top five or six most watched programme ever.. correct if I heard wrong.

Imagine if 400 million tune in to Sunday's final.

Also, begs the question how much money would tv channels make from India Vs Pakistan Bi lateral matches!!

No, they won't.

You and [MENTION=138463]Slog[/MENTION] don't seem to have understood my post.

If this was the FIFA model, Star would have paid let's say US$300 million for the Indian TV rights, and would be laughing all the way to the bank because of an India v Pakistan Final.

But the ICC has instead made them pay US$500 million for the worldwide TV rights to sell on, only for them to discover that Sky UK offers £1 million for the rights, Fox Australia offers A$500,000 and Sky NZ offers NZ$50,000.

So Star suffers because they don't just profit from the Indian market, but they end up heavily penalised for the total disinterest in the "white" countries, whose worthless TV rights they had to buy at huge expense in order to get the Indian rights.
 
Yeah exactly BBC aren't showing live games. Sky have been showing cricket for ages now and if it was actually on Channel 4, ITV or BBC for free I'm confident matches would attract large audiences. As for AUS/NZ that's pretty sad nobody knows the tournament is going on there and the fact there teams didn't make the semi final go well with that. The model of selling it simply to Star Sports sounds very bad.
Cricket is pretty irrelevant in NZ.

More people are interested in following the Lions playing Super rugby sides than how NZ were faring in the CT.
 
the bbc did not show any live matches just crappy higlights and no one care about highlights!
 
From what I've heard, Aussies only care about Test cricket and the ODI World Cup.

Your average Australian is only interested in cricket during the summer, be it Test Cricket, Big Bash or ODIs. Most people here weren't even aware of 2011 WC. It has nothing to do with marketing or tournament prestige - when you factor in the interest for the sport in Winter and the difference in time zones, these figures shouldn't be surprising.
 
Look at how popular cricket is!

its because its on sky! a premium pay channel if it was all free on bbc it would be a much bigger audience for sure, ofcourse not as much as football here but thats a given,
no one really watches highlights of anything now a days
 
Presenting to you the daily dose of doom and gloom from [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] .

Sir, nothing will bring back your favourite Test Championship. Please give it a rest and atop twisting things around to suit your agenda.
 
Hotstar has seen its viewership go up by tens of millions, final will be watched by more than half a million people. Star has recouped its money invested with ad rates going through the roof for finals.

If ICC was to ask for bids again , three India based group - Star, Sony and Zee will definitely bid irrespective of your rants.
 
Presenting to you the daily dose of doom and gloom from [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] .

Sir, nothing will bring back your favourite Test Championship. Please give it a rest and atop twisting things around to suit your agenda.

You can't get away from the following audience share ratings for the England v Pakistan semi-final:

Sky UK: below 0.5% of the viewers watching TV
Fox Australia: too low to measure (below 0.1%)
Sky NZ: too low to measure
 
Hotstar has seen its viewership go up by tens of millions, final will be watched by more than half a million people. Star has recouped its money invested with ad rates going through the roof for finals.

If ICC was to ask for bids again , three India based group - Star, Sony and Zee will definitely bid irrespective of your rants.

Even though they are paying for worthless UK, Australia and New Zealand rights?

You literally cannot buy the India rights without buying the worldwide ones!
 
You can't get away from the following audience share ratings for the England v Pakistan semi-final:

Sky UK: below 0.5% of the viewers watching TV
Fox Australia: too low to measure (below 0.1%)
Sky NZ: too low to measure

Regardless, Star is making money. Star knows it's target audience and the packaging will be to the liking of Asian countries. You can sit all day and brood about NZ ENG AUS rating all you want. If they don't sell the rights as a bouquet, ICC might end up not being able to sell them at all.

Please note that no amount of Gobells Propaganda will help in setting up the Tests Championship.
 
Even though they are paying for worthless UK, Australia and New Zealand rights?

You literally cannot buy the India rights without buying the worldwide ones!

The worldwide rights won't sell if you don't club them with Asian countries rights. People at the ICC know what they are doing.
 
Regardless, Star is making money. Star knows it's target audience and the packaging will be to the liking of Asian countries. You can sit all day and brood about NZ ENG AUS rating all you want. If they don't sell the rights as a bouquet, ICC might end up not being able to sell them at all.

Please note that no amount of Gobells Propaganda will help in setting up the Tests Championship.
The timing for tournaments are terrible in NZ, but if they were on at prime time, they would probably be slaughtered by rugby and Shortland Street lol
 
No, they won't.

You and [MENTION=138463]Slog[/MENTION] don't seem to have understood my post.

If this was the FIFA model,<b> Star <i>would have paid let's say US$300 million</i> for the Indian TV rights</b>, and would be laughing all the way to the bank because of an India v Pakistan Final.<b>

But the ICC has instead made them pay US$500 million for the worldwide TV rights to sell on</b>, only for them to discover that Sky UK offers £1 million for the rights, Fox Australia offers A$500,000 and Sky NZ offers NZ$50,000.

So Star suffers because they don't just profit from the Indian market, but they end up heavily penalised for the total disinterest in the "white" countries, whose worthless TV rights they had to buy at huge expense in order to get the Indian rights.

And Star <b><i>would have received let's say US$700 million</i></b> from advertising in India, everything looks rosy for Star.

You see, anyone can prove whatever they want to, using <b>made-up numbers with a qualifier <i>let's say</i> before it.</b>

Don't try to prove something using hypothetical numbers. Use actual numbers. How much did Star pay in total to ICC, and how much total advertising revenues has it been able to generate?
 
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You can't get away from the following audience share ratings for the England v Pakistan semi-final:

Sky UK: below 0.5% of the viewers watching TV
Fox Australia: too low to measure (below 0.1%)
Sky NZ: too low to measure


An England vs Pakistan Test Match Semi Final would attract even worse numbers in Australia because the small proportion of expats that tune into winter cricket would lose interest. Australia simply does not care about cricket in the Winter, period.
 
The timing for tournaments are terrible in NZ, but if they were on at prime time, they would probably be slaughtered by rugby and Shortland Street lol


This.

Cricket is simply not a sport that has a year-long appeal in the southern hemisphere.
 
The worldwide rights won't sell if you don't club them with Asian countries rights. People at the ICC know what they are doing.

Bingo!

We have a winner!

Which is why I'm suggesting that ALL international cricket should have the rights sold together!
 
Bingo!

We have a winner!

Which is why I'm suggesting that ALL international cricket should have the rights sold together!

Even a 5th grader will know that ICC can sell rights to only tournaments which they host. Oh well, who am I trying to educate.

Whatever floats your boat.
 
I doubt the ICC will care about these figures come Sunday. Packed crowd in London with the largest anticipated broadcast viewing cricket has seen in years.

Will surely be a spectacle!
 
Your average Australian is only interested in cricket during the summer, be it Test Cricket, Big Bash or ODIs. Most people here weren't even aware of 2011 WC. It has nothing to do with marketing or tournament prestige - when you factor in the interest for the sport in Winter and the difference in time zones, these figures shouldn't be surprising.

If Australia had not crashed out in the group stage and if it played in the finals, the interest level would be quite high. At least India is playing in the final, so Star is very happy with the outcome as they will generate fantastic revenues from their most lucrative market.

Absolute disaster for Star would have been a semi-final line-up of the 4 smallest markets, NZ, Bang, SL and Pak/SA and the finals being played between NZ and SL.
 
Bingo!

We have a winner!

Which is why I'm suggesting that ALL international cricket should have the rights sold together!
Yes, we know no one cares about cricket aside from a handful of countries in Asia.
 
If Australia had not crashed out in the group stage and if it played in the finals, the interest level would be quite high. At least India is playing in the final, so Star is very happy with the outcome as they will generate fantastic revenues from their most lucrative market.

Absolute disaster for Star would have been a semi-final line-up of the 4 smallest markets, NZ, Bang, SL and Pak/SA and the finals being played between NZ and SL.
Timing is terrible, the event still wouldn't have drawn in Aus had Aus made it to the Final.
 
Bingo!

We have a winner!

Which is why I'm suggesting that ALL international cricket should have the rights sold together!

Nothing of the sort. This is an issue for contract theory. There is something called a Modigliani-Miller theorem that states the value of something is the sum of it parts, so whether you sell the whole or the parts it does not make a difference to total value.
 
Nothing of the sort. This is an issue for contract theory. There is something called a Modigliani-Miller theorem that states the value of something is the sum of it parts, so whether you sell the whole or the parts it does not make a difference to total value.

Whether you sell Aus rights for $10M and Indian rights $500M, then according to M-M, you will sell Aus and Indian rights for $510. For this not to be true, you [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] have to find reasons (and they may exist) that you have not presented.
 
Timing is terrible, the event still wouldn't have drawn in Aus had Aus made it to the Final.

Well, then contrary to Junaid's assertion, Star must be very happy right now as the country it really really wanted in in the finals.

I think England-India final may have been most lucrative for Star, but it will take Pakistan-India in a heartbeat.
 
Am sure those who agree with Junaids also agree with his views on B-Mac and BCCI/Big-3 :yk3
 
We know that every country except for India has agreed to jointly market their Test, ODI and T20 rights outside their home market, via the ICC, and share the proceeds.

So if Sky UK or BT Sports want to show future Ashes series in Australia, they have to buy a four year package also including South Africa v India and Pakistan v Australia.

Sales WILL exceed the sum of the parts, because otherwise many of those series go unsold and unbroadcast in third countries.
 
Well, then contrary to Junaid's assertion, Star must be very happy right now as the country it really really wanted in in the finals.

I think England-India final may have been most lucrative for Star, but it will take Pakistan-India in a heartbeat.
True, very true.

That's why I was hoping for a New Zealand v Sri Lanka Final to ruin their investment and stop them from cannibalising the next World Test Championship!
 
Slowly [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] is upping the ante and showing his India centric agenda. This is not even surprising any more.

ROFL
 
Cricket needs to fade away and classify itself as obsolete.

OBSOLETE.
You should try attending a Test at the Basin Reserve or Hagley Park on a Friday or Saturday.

Chockers!
 
True, very true.

That's why I was hoping for a New Zealand v Sri Lanka Final to ruin their investment and stop them from cannibalising the next World Test Championship!

Try black magic. You have a better chance that way. :Yk2
 
Slowly [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] is upping the ante and showing his India centric agenda. This is not even surprising any more.

ROFL
The tournament which the ECB bid to host was cancelled in favour of this Made For Indian TV show, very similar to when the IPL was held in South Africa.

Even the lack of Day/Night matches is for Indian TV's time zone.

The sad thing is the lack of interest in England, with only Asian Brits even buying tickets.
 
Try black magic. You have a better chance that way. :Yk2
It's funny, I'll be in Canada on Sunday so I can't even use the Willow TV subscription I have for when I'm in the USA.
[MENTION=132954]Aman[/MENTION] will understand, I'm going to watch the America's Cup if I can't get a feed for the cricket.

That's one sporting event which actually has captivated me this month.

The Auld Mug!
 
The test championship would still fail.

A test tournament will never work. What we really need is test league that runs over 2 or so years with the highest ranked team being crowned the champions at the end of the cycle.

And forget the TV rating for those countries all those countries care about is test so the TV ratings for those countries were never gonna be great anyway.

No it won't. Just three tests with top 4 teams in two semi and a final. It's like any other three test series and would sell incurring little cost but higher profits.
 
Whether you sell Aus rights for $10M and Indian rights $500M, then according to M-M, you will sell Aus and Indian rights for $510. For this not to be true, you [MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] have to find reasons (and they may exist) that you have not presented.
Simple: currently 80% or more of bilateral international series are not shown - ie purchased - in third countries.
 
It's funny, I'll be in Canada on Sunday so I can't even use the Willow TV subscription I have for when I'm in the USA.

[MENTION=132954]Aman[/MENTION] will understand, I'm going to watch the America's Cup if I can't get a feed for the cricket.

That's one sporting event which actually has captivated me this month.

The Auld Mug!
Can't say that I say that I see the appeal, but it's awesome that you get to see all these great sporting events live. Hopefully we don't choke this time around, that was the all time great choke.... you cannot possibly choke harder than we did last time...
 
Can't say that I say that I see the appeal, but it's awesome that you get to see all these great sporting events live. Hopefully we don't choke this time around, that was the all time great choke.... you cannot possibly choke harder than we did last time...

Sadly I'm not going to Bermuda, just Canada.

You should try watching the America's Cup. I was living in Auckland when Team New Zealand (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) won in 1995 in San Diego, and it was a privilege to experience the excitement and joy. The only thing even bigger than the All Blacks in NZ, but hey, Auckland is the City of Sails!
 
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Junaid with one more statistical crap article ... As long as India is playing Star Sports will make money. They are not fools to invest if no returns are expected.
 
It was you who said there was no interest in the CT in NZ.
There isn't. How's it like in Australia? Don't really see much on Australian sports sites, even a few Australian forums aren't too enthusiastic about it.
 
Sales WILL exceed the sum of the parts, because otherwise many of those series go unsold and unbroadcast in third countries.

It doesn't work that way. Something goes unsold if it has a negative value. Adding a negative value does not increase total value.

There may be "synergies" but you have to explain what these are and their magnitudes.
 
There isn't. How's it like in Australia? Don't really see much on Australian sports sites, even a few Australian forums aren't too enthusiastic about it.

A few die hard fans are keeping an eye on the series but with Australia only having one match not many people even know its on. Cricket cannot compete with contact sports.
 
The tournament which the ECB bid to host was cancelled in favour of this Made For Indian TV show, very similar to when the IPL was held in South Africa.

Even the lack of Day/Night matches is for Indian TV's time zone.

The sad thing is the lack of interest in England, with only Asian Brits even buying tickets.
So it was the asian brits who were present in record nos in England vs Australia match. You know you are in the wrong country. With your propaganda skills you should either go to us i am sure the republicans will like someone like you or if you can somehow swallow your dislike for india come here i am sure bjp won't mind someone like you either.
 
The weather in England also contributed to a lot of truncated, interrupted games and a couple of unfinished games as well. Guess that can't be good for ratings either.
 
Nothing of the sort. This is an issue for contract theory. There is something called a Modigliani-Miller theorem that states the value of something is the sum of it parts, so whether you sell the whole or the parts it does not make a difference to total value.

Err...pardon me for being presumptuous but I think the theory you are referring to is the capital structure irrelevance theorem which has very little to do it a situation like this.
 
The tournament which the ECB bid to host was cancelled in favour of this Made For Indian TV show, very similar to when the IPL was held in South Africa.

Even the lack of Day/Night matches is for Indian TV's time zone.

The sad thing is the lack of interest in England, with only Asian Brits even buying tickets.

As much as I would have liked to see it coming to fruition, I guess we all know that the test championship idea was a non-starter given the preferences of the majority of the cricketing world.
 
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