ABC Seeks Ashes TV Rights

[Beaussie]

ABC still seeking Ashes rights
February 21, 2005
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story ... id=2699803

THE ABC was still trying to secure the free-to-air television rights for the Ashes series despite an initial knock back from English cricket officials, a Senate committee heard today.

The ABC has made a last-minute bid for the rights amid fears Australian cricket fans will only be able to watch the Test matches on pay-TV channel Fox Sports.

Channels Nine, Seven and Ten have all knocked back the chance to buy the free-to-air broadcast rights.

ABC head of TV policy Michael Ward told the committee negotiations between the national broadcaster and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) were continuing.

"We are hopeful that a sale can be agreed," he said.

"We are continuing to communicate with them, as recently as over the weekend."

Mr Ward rejected claims that the ABC's original bid had been tokenistic.

"It's certainly not token as far as we're concerned," he said.

ABC managing director Russell Balding told a separate Senate committee hearing last week the ABC's initial bid had been knocked back by the ECB but talks were continuing.

Prime Minister John Howard earlier this month urged the ABC to negotiate for the rights, saying he wanted to see the tour of England on free-to-air TV.

A passionate cricket fan, Mr Howard said the Ashes series was one of the world's great sporting events.

You'd think the ECB would take any offer from the ABC considering no other FTA TV network in Australia is interested.

[Beaussie]

Correction to my previous post. It seems the one day series will be telecast on Channel 7 whilst the Ashes series will be on SBS.

SBS and cricket. That should be interesting.

Free-to-air: one day cricket
March 1, 2005 - 2:57PM
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Cricket/Free ... 49716.html


Australia's cricket one-day international series in England will be shown live on the Seven Network.

Seven today announced it had secured broadcasting rights to the series, hot on the heels of SBS television winning the free-to-air rights for the highly-anticipated Ashes Test series.

The agreement was finalised in London this morning with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Fox Sports has the rights to broadcast the series on pay-TV and these rights will not be affected by Seven's coverage.

Seven's chief executive officer, David Leckie, said the agreement was great news for cricket fans, but the government needed to urgently address a loophole in anti-siphoning rules that places coverage of major sports events at significant risk.

"Seven and SBS have stepped up on this occasion and will deliver the Ashes Test series and one-day series to all Australians - not only the 23 per cent of people who subscribe to pay television," Mr Leckie said.

"This obvious defect in the anti-siphoning regulations must be fixed immediately.

"The government in Australia needs to urgently close this loophole to ensure that coverage of future sports events are not at risk of being siphoned off exclusively to pay television."

Seven's coverage will begin with the historic first Twenty20 match between international cricket's oldest rivals on June 13.

The network will also cover the three full one-day internationals between Australia and England, plus the Australians matches against Bangladesh in the tri-nation series.

The only scheduling clash will be on July 2, when Sydney and Brisbane viewers will see a rugby union Test rather than the cricket, which will be broadcast to the rest of the country.

[Dizzys_on_fire]

God Bless SBS!