Ten owner Paramount in box seat to secure deal for cricket rights

US entertainment giant and Network Ten owner Paramount is leading the race to win Cricket Australia’s media rights auction, as Seven and Foxtel scramble to match its $1.5 billion offer for rights to Test matches, one-day internationals and the Big Bash League.

Cricket Australia has given media companies until Thursday afternoon to submit best and final offers for the rights package, which begins in 2025. This masthead revealed earlier this week that Paramount lobbed a $1.5 billion bid for the rights for the next seven years.

Sources close to the process confirmed Paramount’s current bid exceeds the amount on offer from incumbents Seven and Foxtel, who are unwilling to match that offer. But Seven, currently the top-rated free-to-air network, and Foxtel, which is part of the News Corp media stable, argue they can offer greater promotional muscle than Paramount.

Executives from Seven, Foxtel and CA held talks in the past 48 hours about whether they could collectively increase the total sum offered to retain the cricket rights, which expire in 2024, according to people familiar with the talks who spoke anonymously because they are confidential.

The media sources said pay TV giant Foxtel has also privately agreed to let Seven stream key cricket matches on its online platform 7Plus if it means securing the rights for another term, which was a key condition of the free-to-air network’s offer. Foxtel made the same concession with the AFL, a move which proved critical in allowing it and Seven to clinch an agreement with the code and beat out Paramount.

However, Foxtel is not willing to give up the exclusive rights to ODIs, which it secured under the previous agreement with CA. Even if Seven and Foxtel find common ground, their combined offer will not be an increase on the existing deal, which is worth about $197 million per year.

Depending on which way CA splits the various rights between the two parties, there is also a chance they could be offered less than the existing deal. Outgoing CA chair Lachlan Henderson has said publicly he believes cricket is undervalued in the broadcast market, but a range of factors is limiting the money on offer from Seven and Foxtel.

These include lucrative deals with the AFL and NBC Universal, the poor ratings performance of the Big Bash League (which forms the majority of the current rights fee), and a softer advertising market.

If Seven and Foxtel do not budge, it means CA will need to decide whether to take the extra cash and end a long-standing partnership with Foxtel, whose parent company News Corp owns The Daily Telegraph, The Australian and The Herald Sun. The alternative would be to remain with the incumbents for less cash. CA is also currently in a bitter legal stoush with Seven in the Federal Court.