Cricket's "exploding Big Bash has stolen the crown" from Australian Football League and National Rugby League "as the best rating pound-for-pound sports league in Australia," according to Ben Horne of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH. Boasting a "staggering national average of 1.1 million viewers" on Network Ten for the summer, the BBL "has not only trumped the football codes on rival channels but put Cricket Australia in a position where it can’t possibly fail when the next broadcast deal is negotiated." Nine and Seven "are now set to go hard at stealing Ten’s summer jewel" for the '18-19 season and beyond, with Fox Sports also in the market for a piece of the pie, and the unprecedented interest in cricket will likely send the BBL broadcast rights sky-rocketing toward A$60M ($44M) a year.
Cricket, for the first time, "now averages over a million nationally across all the major formats." Ten’s A$20M ($14.7M) a season deal over five years, "dismissed as way overboard by industry rivals at the time, has proven the undisputed biggest bargain in television." Ten Head of Sport David Barham said, "It’s amazing. From our point of view it’s extremely pleasing." There "is no reason why cricket wouldn’t be able to hit the jackpot just like the AFL and NRL have in recent years, by broadcasting the BBL on a major free-to-air network and simulcast on Fox Sports -- who are hungry for summer content" (HERALD SUN, 5/8).
