CA, Seven deal ‘makes about as much sense as a screen door on a submarine’: Willee
Late yesterday afternoon, 30 June, reports emerged Seven has launched Federal Court proceedings to terminate its mega-contract with Cricket Australia. Following the story, Spinach general manager Ben Willee told Mumbrella he’s “not surprised in the slightest that it’s blown up”.
“I would say the current deal between Cricket Australia and Channel Seven makes about as much sense as a screen door on a submarine.”
“The key issue is that Cricket Australia took the money and took their most valuable high rating properties, which are One-Day International cricket and T20 International Cricket, and put that behind the paywall. So that’s a massive coup for Foxtel, but that’s actually bad for cricket.”
Both One-day cricket and T20 cricket matches involving Australia in Australia are on the anti-siphoning list. These matches only went exclusively to Foxtel when Seven, as the FTA rights holder, declined to broadcast them.
Callum you need to fact check this guys statements. He’s Always wrong!
MAFS was smashing MKR well before the cricket moved. Zero link – check the ratings. This is an old trope that hasn’t been relevant for 7 years.
Hey Anecdotes,
Not to speak on behalf of Ben, but I believe he was speaking more to the power of using summer sports to springboard into Q1 headline content.
While I believe you are correct and MAFS may have performed better even prior to Nine securing the tennis, it has further boosted its share during the three years since.
Cheers,
Calum – Mumbrella
Ben’s argument makes perfect sense to me. It’s exactly the same principle as the much touted physical availability in marketing science.
If people don’t have access to a product, they can’t buy it, no matter how much they might want to. Over time the mental availability diminishes and soon enough the interest is lost as the need is met elsewhere. Maybe if the product becomes available again it might sell, or maybe the substitute holds on.
Cricket got greedy, and will pay in reduced viewer/spectator interest that if they aren’t careful will become generational. The game is basically invisible unless you have Pay TV. Out of sight, out of mind. Football (AKA soccer) has the same problem as does basketball.
To do it right is remarkably easy, it just does’t pour in a gush of cash that lines a few people for a while. If you want the game to grow, you’ll make it as accessible as humanly possible.