Ten extends coverage of Women’s Big Bash League including prime time games

Network Ten has moved to bolster its broadcast of this year’s Big Bash League cricket with all men’s games to be played in prime time, while it has also extended its coverage of women’s competition, as it moves into its final year of an existing deal with Cricket Australia (CA).

Cricket Australia is currently in the middle of media rights negotiation for the franchise which has proven to be a ratings blockbuster for Ten throughout the quiet Christmas period, regularly pulling metro audiences of 800,000 and more. Attendances at matches has also rocketed.

The women’s competition kicks off before the men’s on December 10 with the first match between the Melbourne Stars and Sydney Thunder being shown on the primary channel at 6:00pm, leading CEO Paul Anderson to claim it is “this will be the first time a standalone women’s sporting competition has been broadcast in prime time on a commercial free-to-air television network’s primary channel.”