Australian broadcaster ABC "will lose its exclusive rights to Test cricket in Australia, with radio stations 2UE and 3AW to cover the game alongside the national broadcaster starting with this summer's Ashes series," according to Chris Barrett of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD.
In "an historic move by Cricket Australia aimed at broadening the audience of cricket's traditional format, its broadcast-rights team is deep in negotiations with Fairfax Radio." In another development that "leaves the ABC frozen out of covering domestic cricket, Triple M has picked up the rights to the Twenty20 Big Bash League." CA's "foray into commercial radio has been a well-guarded secret for weeks and has been made amid administrators' urgency to maintain the relevancy of Test cricket and take it to new markets as well as a drive to further boost revenue." By adding commercial AM and FM partners for Tests and the BBL, respectively, cricket "joins the country's other leading codes," the Australian Football League, which has games in Melbourne called by the ABC, 3AW, SEN and Triple M, and the National Rugby League, "whose radio rights in Sydney are held by the ABC, 2GB and Triple M" (SMH, 10/4).
