http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...heffield-shield/story-e6frg7rx-1226751600445#
INFURIATED by the tone of negotiations with Cricket Australia, ABC Radio has walked away from covering Sheffield Shield and the Big Bash and plans to fill the void with A-League soccer.
Cricket Australia announced yesterday a five-year deal that allows Fairfax Radio to cherry pick two Tests and international limited-overs games plus some Big Bash games.
The ABC will continue to cover Tests, ODIs and International Twenty20s on a non-exclusive basis, but has been angered by the negotiating tactics of CA, which insists on streaming all radio coverage through its website.
In the new broadcast deal, which is about to be signed with the ABC, there will be no ball-by-ball Shield or Big Bash coverage, and weekend Grandstand audiences will only get score updates of the domestic games.
The Weekend Australian has obtained a copy of an email sent to staff at the ABC by manager of Grandstand Sport Craig Norenbergs yesterday, which made it clear that domestic cricket's loss was soccer's gain. "Total airtime given to sport in 2014 will be roughly equivalent to 2013," it said. "For example, the hours 'credited' by not covering the Big Bash League, the Sheffield Shield, and the Ryobi Cup (finals excepted) is roughly offset by the time going to the A-League and other highlights of the FFA calendar."
Norenbergs told staff the ABC was close to signing a deal and that changes had been "dictated" by CA. The last deal was worth about $1 million over five years.
The A-League recently signed a four-year broadcast agreement with ABC Radio committing to covering all its matches live.
"With the lack of online and mobile rights we needed to consider what cross-platform content we would have during the summer months," Norenbergs told staff. "Mobile is a key focus for ABC Radio over the next three years and our audiences now expect a strong level of content delivery. The A-League has given unbridled rights across all platforms, offer attractive audience development opportunities and supported a mutually beneficial approach to content delivery."
The ABC local radio feeds elements of ball-by-ball coverage of Shield games into its Grandstand coverage with some markets taking complete sessions. CA has followed the AFL model and insisted that its website host the live streaming of all cricket, but the ABC is unwilling to give up its respected weekend program to a commercial website. The staff email went out yesterday after CA announced its deal with Fairfax Radio, which allows the network to cover the Sydney and Melbourne Tests along with the international limited-overs season.
Fairfax does not own stations in Hobart or Adelaide. ABC sources said they understood that cricket wanted to broaden its reach, but that the negotiations had been insulting and lacked respect for the national broadcaster's relationship with the game.
CA has gone into a partnership with the Nine Network under the TV broadcast deal to rebuild its digital platform and will launch a new website and application for mobile phone, but appears to have based its digital model on the AFL's, which also insists on owning the streaming rights.
"As part of the radio rights agreement, home Test, one-day international and T20 internationals will air across 3AW Melbourne, 2UE Sydney, 4BC Brisbane and 6PR Perth, while most KFC BBL matches will be aired to the markets of the teams taking part in each match as well as nationally via DAB+ digital radio," CA said in a release. "Fairfax Radio Network will engage regional stations and is working to provide coverage in Adelaide."
CA's general manager of marketing and media, Ben Amarfio, has negotiated the radio deals.
"We hope it is the first of a number of radio rights agreements to be announced in the lead-up to a huge summer of cricket," he said in a release. "Our work with all of our broadcast partners is designed to take the game to the widest audience possible and to help make cricket Australia's favourite team sport."
The fate of domestic cricket on the radio reflects what happened to the Ryobi Cup in the lucrative broadcast deal struck a few months back.
International cricket stayed with Nine at a greatly increased price, but the Ten Network won the rights to the Big Bash when these had previously been packaged with the domestic one-day competition on Fox Sports.
When Fox lost the BBL to commercial TV it walked away from broadcasting the Ryobi tournament, forcing Cricket Australia to pay Nine almost $1m to cover costs associated with broadcasting it on its digital channel.
That proved to be money well spent with the competition rating better than in previous years.
