Anyone know where the cricket commercial radio rights are up? As someone mentioned Croc/SEN might chase those.
Well i don't radio rights come up for negotiation. TV rights deals i think are over a 5 year period. Radio right might be different. In 2013, Fairfax bought the rights to tests, ODI's and the Big Bash. In 2016 MMM acquired the rights to provide radio coverage for test matches in Australia. I could be totally wrong but It seems like any station that wants to cover cricket on the radio just needs to present a deal to Cricket Australia that they agree with and, bingo, you've got the rights.
I do wonder though if there are enough good commentary boxes to go around. I'll use the recent Sydney test as an example: We had channel 9, BT Sport, ABC Grandstand, Macquarie radio, MMM and Test Match Special all covering the test providing commentary. Channel 9, BT Sport, ABC Grandstand, Macquarie radio, MMM were all using the commentary facilities behind the bowlers arm, while TMS had to use a commentary box in the Bill O'Reilly stand which didn't provide a great view for commentary IMO. Maybe it's only an issue in Sydney but i don't think the commentary position TMS had was mcuh chop at all. I know i'd rather be behind the bowlers arm.
Here's the view TMS had via Michael Vaughan's Instagram: