An expanding media landscape has Cricket Australia confident it will attract "unprecedented" interest in its next round of broadcast rights.
While announcing a $68 million surplus over its just-completed four-year financial cycle, CA chief executive James Sutherland said the game's governing body was well placed to cash in when negotiations intensify over a new round of local international and Big Bash League rights.
As reported by Fairfax Media, CA had been hopeful of securing $200 million annually in the new deal, with BBL rights expected to treble to $60 million a year under a new deal.
The current five-year broadcast deal is worth $590 million, including $100 million for the BBL, and expires at the end of this summer.
Sutherland pointed to the $3.2 billion, five-year deal secured by the Indian Premier League in September as a reason why the CA rights would jump.
"We believe there is significant interest in cricket's rights. Ultimately, the market will decide the value of our rights but we do know the media landscape is changing all the time," he said at CA's annual general meeting in Brisbane.
"We do know that in this particular cycle we are going to have an unprecedented number of media companies of different sorts who are interested in our rights. Things are changing quickly and by the day and you only need to see the recent sale of the IPL rights in India and the different companies that bid for those rights to illustrate just how different the media landscape today is compared to the last time we sold our rights.
"We have great content, we have high levels of fan passion and fan interest in our sport and we are very confident we are in a good position to get a great result for Australian cricket.
"Together with that, the position is even stronger by virtue of developments at ICC level in terms of structures of cricket."
Channel Nine has indicated it wants a deal done by the end of the year. Nine has said it not only wants to retain international men's and women's cricket but also take hold of the growing beast that is the BBL and Women's Big Bash League.
Channel Ten, now under the new ownership US station CBS, will be keen to retain the competition it has helped to build into a powerhouse.
"We are, obviously, pleased to see Ten have some stability now. There was a bit of an uncertain period there when they went into administration," he said.
Digital media companies are also emerging as significant players in the live sporting sphere, with Facebook failing in its $600 million for the IPL.
The new Test and one-day international championships from 2019 will provide greater context to often meaningless series. The Test championship will culminate in a play-off for the title, while the ODI championship will culminate in qualification for the World Cup.
Sutherland, who has driven this change, said the championships would also help to stimulate broadcasters.
"With an international Test league and one-day league, the structure and context around cricket is going to improve not only for the bilateral participants in matches but for the world," he said.
"The global interest in cricket is going to significantly increase because of this additional context. It's a great step forward. The challenge now is to finalise our program through to 2023 but that is well advanced and it's really just the final stages that we need to work on."
CA has recently secured a bevy of overseas broadcasters deals, including a lucrative six-year contract with Indian broadcaster, Sony Pictures.
Sutherland revealed CA had plans to shift the WBBL to its own "discreet window", allowing it to "shine the way it should". It is concurrently played with the men's BBL but Sutherland wants a "greater focus" although details were in a preliminary stage.
The broadcast funds will help improve conditions at grass-roots level, where Sutherland said only 20 per cent of facilities were "appropriate" for females.
While there was a $68 million surplus over the past four years, CA posted a $50 million loss for the 2016-17 season.
In a statement, CA said: "With an operating deficit of $50.8m and net assets declining to $98.6m for the 2016-17 financial year, results were in line with management and budgetary expectations and the four-year, long-range plan.
This cycle typically includes a profit during a home Ashes summer and when India tours. However, the international season is loss-making when other nations tour because of their less lucrative broadcast rights deals. It's expected there will be a "modest surplus" this Ashes summer.
There was a $6 million loss over the previous cycle. The latest cycle included a home World Cup.
Board directors Jacquie Hey, Mark Taylor and Tony Harrison were re-elected.
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cric...plus-over-fouryear-cycle-20171023-gz6t6r.html
While announcing a $68 million surplus over its just-completed four-year financial cycle, CA chief executive James Sutherland said the game's governing body was well placed to cash in when negotiations intensify over a new round of local international and Big Bash League rights.
As reported by Fairfax Media, CA had been hopeful of securing $200 million annually in the new deal, with BBL rights expected to treble to $60 million a year under a new deal.
The current five-year broadcast deal is worth $590 million, including $100 million for the BBL, and expires at the end of this summer.
Sutherland pointed to the $3.2 billion, five-year deal secured by the Indian Premier League in September as a reason why the CA rights would jump.
"We believe there is significant interest in cricket's rights. Ultimately, the market will decide the value of our rights but we do know the media landscape is changing all the time," he said at CA's annual general meeting in Brisbane.
"We do know that in this particular cycle we are going to have an unprecedented number of media companies of different sorts who are interested in our rights. Things are changing quickly and by the day and you only need to see the recent sale of the IPL rights in India and the different companies that bid for those rights to illustrate just how different the media landscape today is compared to the last time we sold our rights.
"We have great content, we have high levels of fan passion and fan interest in our sport and we are very confident we are in a good position to get a great result for Australian cricket.
"Together with that, the position is even stronger by virtue of developments at ICC level in terms of structures of cricket."
Channel Nine has indicated it wants a deal done by the end of the year. Nine has said it not only wants to retain international men's and women's cricket but also take hold of the growing beast that is the BBL and Women's Big Bash League.
Channel Ten, now under the new ownership US station CBS, will be keen to retain the competition it has helped to build into a powerhouse.
"We are, obviously, pleased to see Ten have some stability now. There was a bit of an uncertain period there when they went into administration," he said.
Digital media companies are also emerging as significant players in the live sporting sphere, with Facebook failing in its $600 million for the IPL.
The new Test and one-day international championships from 2019 will provide greater context to often meaningless series. The Test championship will culminate in a play-off for the title, while the ODI championship will culminate in qualification for the World Cup.
Sutherland, who has driven this change, said the championships would also help to stimulate broadcasters.
"With an international Test league and one-day league, the structure and context around cricket is going to improve not only for the bilateral participants in matches but for the world," he said.
"The global interest in cricket is going to significantly increase because of this additional context. It's a great step forward. The challenge now is to finalise our program through to 2023 but that is well advanced and it's really just the final stages that we need to work on."
CA has recently secured a bevy of overseas broadcasters deals, including a lucrative six-year contract with Indian broadcaster, Sony Pictures.
Sutherland revealed CA had plans to shift the WBBL to its own "discreet window", allowing it to "shine the way it should". It is concurrently played with the men's BBL but Sutherland wants a "greater focus" although details were in a preliminary stage.
The broadcast funds will help improve conditions at grass-roots level, where Sutherland said only 20 per cent of facilities were "appropriate" for females.
While there was a $68 million surplus over the past four years, CA posted a $50 million loss for the 2016-17 season.
In a statement, CA said: "With an operating deficit of $50.8m and net assets declining to $98.6m for the 2016-17 financial year, results were in line with management and budgetary expectations and the four-year, long-range plan.
This cycle typically includes a profit during a home Ashes summer and when India tours. However, the international season is loss-making when other nations tour because of their less lucrative broadcast rights deals. It's expected there will be a "modest surplus" this Ashes summer.
There was a $6 million loss over the previous cycle. The latest cycle included a home World Cup.
Board directors Jacquie Hey, Mark Taylor and Tony Harrison were re-elected.
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cric...plus-over-fouryear-cycle-20171023-gz6t6r.html
