Bad news for non pay-tv subscribers

[EagleBlue]

Fox wins 2005 Ashes tour rights


Australian cricket fans may have to pay to watch Australia's 2005 Ashes cricket tour of England live on television.

Pay TV sports channel Fox Sports has secured an option over the live cable TV rights to Australia's 2005 Ashes tour, casting doubt on whether the series will be shown by any Australian free-to-air network, The Australian Financial Review reported.

While the free-to-air broadcast rights have not been sold, Seven Network chief executive David Leckie told analysts the Fox Sports deal could fragment potential audiences, proving a disincentive for advertisers.

That would handicap the networks in paying a fair price for the primary broadcast rights and they might abandon their attempts, Mr Leckie said at a recent dinner address.

The issue has ignited tensions over the federal government's controversial anti-siphoning regime for major sports, which requires the events to be offered to SBS, ABC or the other networks before pay TV.




Fox Sports was able to acquire the Ashes rights from the England and Wales Cricket Board because it is not a pay TV licensee, such as Foxtel and Austar, which are limited by the anti-siphoning regime.

[red+black]

yeah i heard this briefly too. honestly it's how all sport should go. i'm sick of commercial stations pretending to be committed to sport and not showing all sessions in cricket, or showing F1 hours late. commercial stations have too many competing interests, such as over summer when A Current Affair takes precedence over the start of the 2nd innings of an ODI.

we just need stacks more cable sports channels.

(edited: replaced "over cricket when" with "over summer when")

[dr nick]

Originally posted by red+black
yeah i heard this briefly too. honestly it's how all sport should go. i'm sick of commercial stations pretending to be committed to sport and not showing all sessions in cricket, or showing F1 hours late. commercial stations have too many competing interests, such as over cricket when A Current Affair takes precedence over the start of the 2nd innings of an ODI.

we just need stacks more cable sports channels. yah, the F1 coverage is terrible. i hate it how Eastlake and Jones have their "expert" commentary, i'd rather listen to the pommy callers, but it'd be good if there were pay stations commited to showing qualifying as well. i'm also always furious when the eastern states cut to the news at the climax of the days play in the test match.

but with those english tours, i reckon its better leaving the radio on all night, so as long as the ABC are still calling it....


speaking of which... how damn annoying was the ABC during the world cup, cutting to regular breakfast shows and "sunday with macca" when the final stages of matches were on!!:mad:

[red+black]

cricket on the radio is a joy indeed. also love watching The Winners (VFL) on Fox Footy when football used to be on ABC TV. no wonder I loved watching footy on tv as a very young kid.

re cricket on the radio, i enjoy Harsha Bhogle, hope he comes out this summer.

[wagstaff]

Here's a brief background (based on my memory) on what the free-to-air TV coverage has been for Australian viewers in Melbourne of the last few Ashes tours.

1989 - Live coverage by Ch. 9 from 8:30pm, which meant that viewers missed out on the first 30 mins on each day's play. The only exception was the final day of the 4th Test with Australia on the verge of winning the Ashes, where Ch. 9 showed play from 8:00pm

1993 - Each day's play was shown in full from 8:30pm, and this meant that the first session was shown on half an hour delay, and had the extra benefit for 9 in that they could go directly to the 2nd session of play without the 30 min break for lunch. Viewers were generally unimpressed with the 30 min delay.

1997 - This was the first time PayTV was on the scene and as a result, the first session of each play was shown on Optus with Ch. 9 showing the last two sessions live. from the later time of 10:30pm. It was deemed by the powers that be that the cricket wasn't worthy enough to be in the prime-time ratings slot of 8:30-10:30pm anymore. Ch. 9 did show the third day of the Headingly Test (on a Saturday night) from the beginning but it did not rate well and the experiment wasn't tried again. The ABC broadcast the 3rd Test as Ch. 9 were showing Wimbledon and did show the final day of the Test from the actual starting time of 8:00pm on a Monday night, which caused some annoyance amongst fans of 4 Corners. However, the ratings for the cricket were better then what 4 Corners usually got.

This is the final overseas Test series to this day that Ch. 9 has broadcast live in any shape or form.

2001 - In a move that caused surprise in media circles, Ch. 9 let Ch. 7 get the rights to broadcast this Ashes series. The deal was the same as 1997; Pay-TV would get the rights to the first session of the Tests then free-to-air would take it over from the late-night point of 10:30pm. Apart from the host James Brayshaw, Ch. 7 merely used the Sky-Tv feed for the broadcast.

When you look at the changes in the broadcast structure of successive Ashes series, the likely move to it being broadcast entirely by Pay-TV isn't a surprise.

[The Scarecrow]

So who else was in the running to air the Ashes? I guess I better ready to set my radio to ABC Radio again like I did with the Windies tour.

[statman]

Foxtel has all the rights for any overseas tours, Nine only get's the tours in AUstralia

[JUBJUB]

Originally posted by The Scarecrow
So who else was in the running to air the Ashes?

I think ch7 have shown the last 2 Ashes series from England,but there coverage was dreadful.They didn't start the coverage until about 10.30pm,despite play starting at 7.30pm.

[EagleBlue]

Originally posted by JUBJUB
I think ch7 have shown the last 2 Ashes series from England,but there coverage was dreadful.They didn't start the coverage until about 10.30pm,despite play starting at 7.30pm.

Sometimes even later on Friday and Saturday nights as Seven still had the AFL rights in 2001.

Ch9 showed it in 1997, Although I think ABC showed one of the test matches when Ch9 showed Wimbledon instead