MELBOURNE: Cricket Australia (CA) formally confirmed Sunday news out in the media last week that Disney Star had secured the rights to broadcast Australian cricket throughout India and other territories across Asia.
The seven-year deal, commencing in 2023-24 will see Disney Star televise men’s international and women’s international matches played in Australia as well as Australia’s domestic T20 men’s and women’s tournaments – Big Bash League (BBL) and WBBL respectively.
Interestingly, the official announcement made a note of Disney Star’s recent win of the TV broadcast rights for the Indian Premier League from 2023-27. As per the release, “CA’s alignment with the IPL broadcaster will ensure multiple benefits including widespread cross promotion of the BBL.”
While financial terms were not disclosed, Australian media have corrected and “upgraded” figures initially put out that the consolidated rights value of the new deal was A$250 million ($172.65m).
New figures published put the deal value over the next seven years at $250m (A$360m+) in cash and cash equivalents (such as the windfall from virtual signage on broadcasts). As the Sydney Morning Herald notes, the agreement that has been signed between Disney Star and CA is larger than the fee Nine was paying, as recently as a decade ago, for all cricket in Australia – A$275m between 2006 and 2013.
For context, CA’s six-year deal signed in 2017 with Sony Pictures Networks India, was initially estimated to be worth around A$150m. However, last year it was revealed that the agreement was in fact only worth about A$110m because the fine print included the playing of extra matches between Australia and India that were not a part of the globally agreed schedule and did not ultimately take place.
Disney Star’s aggressive play for the rights was in part influenced by Cricket Australia having secured a combined 20 home Test matches against India and England over the next rights cycle, as opposed to 13 during the current period.
The key element here is the “in part”. Because whichever way you slice and dice this (even if Sony had paid A$150m instead of only A$110m), Disney has committed to pay a massive premium to ensure the CA rights are back in its fold.
That SPN would not be willing to engage in a bidding war at the prices that Disney has signed on for is a given.
Additionally, that this is happening at a time when the cricket rights value in pretty much every market barring India is seeing a downward correction (or at best a marginal upside), begs the question – what could explain such a big payout commitment upstick on the part of the House of Mouse?
For further context, SportzPower understands that the new deal with CA, on a per match basis for games involving Australia and India, would fall in the same ball park as what Disney is currently paying BCCI for international matches played in India, which is huge.
As far as this website can make out, the premium that Disney is paying (it is without doubt a premium), is an attempt to protect, to whatever extent possible, its Disney+ Hotstar subscriber base, which currently stands at over 50m paid subscribers, accounting for 36.4 per cent of the total paid subscriber base of Disney+.
As already discussed by SportzPower and other media outlets, said subscriber base is expected to see a major contraction when the IPL comes around next year due to the streaming rights having gone to Reliance-controlled Viacom18.
If this is indeed the reasoning, the bean counters at the International Cricket Council would be rubbing their hands in anticipation of windfall gains for its upcoming India territory media rights sale.
Meanwhile, commenting on the agreement with Disney, CA chief executive Nick Hockley stated: “We are delighted to announce this new association with Disney Star from season 2023-24 onwards.
“Disney Star is synonymous with the game in India and we look forward to working with them to showcase the outstanding cricket played in Australia every summer.
“The magnitude of this association is testament to the enduring rivalry and respect that exists between Australian and Indian teams, the excitement and popularity of WBBL and BBL, and the high regard of Australian cricket in India and global markets more broadly.
“There was significant interest in our rights and we are very grateful to our current rights holder Sony for their partnership which will continue throughout this season.”
Related Report
CA to ink 7-yr, $170m+ rights deal with Disney Star: Oz media
