Seven West Media has won a $5.3 million cut in what it was due to pay cricket Australia for broadcast rights.
But the dispute over the quality of the cricket season isn’t over yet. Court action is ahead.
An expert appointed by the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration decided that the financial impact of changes to the 2020-21 cricket season is $5.3 million and that this should be deducted from the next scheduled rights
fee payment, due today.
The expert also determined that if the Afghanistan Test is not rescheduled for the 2021-22 cricket season, a further $3 million should be deducted from the next rights fee payment.
The media group may challenge the ruling. Seven West Media has reserved all rights concerning the cricket expert not having met fundamental contractual conditions of independence under the media rights agreement.
The media group has been unhappy with the quality of cricket available for its free-to-air broadcast and argues it shouldn’t be paying as much for the rights.
Seven West and Fox Sports, majority owned by News Corp, have a six-year, $1.18 billion broadcast rights deal, which started in 2018.
Seven is paying $450 million ($75m a year) for tests, 43 Big Bash League matches and women’s internationals and BBL.
The broadcaster won significant reductions in broadcast rights fees from the AFL after the pandemic cut into the playing season.
Seven West Media’s preliminary discovery action in the Federal Court relating to what it believes may be actionable Test Match and BBL quality failures by Cricket Australia is set down today (March 15, 2021).
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