Free TV takes swing at Amazon over free cricket coverage
Amazon Prime Video will air the ICC Women's World Cup for free.
The peak body for Australia’s commercial TV broadcasters has struck out at Amazon’s plan to offer all matches of the forthcoming ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup live and free to all Australians, saying the offering is a bait and switch.
Amazon’s Prime Video will offer live and free streams of all 31 matches in the upcoming tournament. Viewers must log in with a free Amazon account to access the matches — no payment or ‘trial’ period is required.
Free TV’s CEO Bridget Fair issued a press release over the weekend arguing that “Amazon says it will be making this tournament available for free, but we all know with Amazon there’s no such thing.”
Fair claims “this is just a means to grow their subscriber base, acquire user data and upsell” and the deal — struck in December 2023 — “shows how quickly our major sporting events can be snapped up by global streaming platforms that have no obligation to provide universal access.”
Free TV members visited Parliament House in Canberra last week to lobby for the tightening of the anti-siphoning rules, in order to ensure free-to-air networks have first right of refusal for streaming rights — as well as the broadcast rights — for major sporting events.
A ‘loophole’ in anti-siphoning laws allows overseas streaming services to outbid local free-to-air providers for digital rights. The loophole was not closed in changes to the anti-siphoning laws passed last year.
Fair argued “the need to close the digital loophole in the anti-siphoning list is more urgent than ever” and that “global streaming companies are coming for our beloved national sports”. She then presented a hypothetical scenario where Amazon will “offer the event for free until the competition is knocked out and then make everybody pay.”
She concludes that “ultimately, Australians will be forced to pay to watch their national teams compete.”
Nine held the free-to-air broadcast rights to the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, but opted against securing the rights for the Women’s World Cup — a decision that copped criticism at the time.
Instead, Foxtel — who had on-sold the ICC rights to Nine, and who is not a member of Free TV — chose to broadcast the finals on Kayo Freebies, making them available for free to Australians, although there was no legislative onus to do so.
Alyssa Healy
At the time, Australian women’s cricket captain Alyssa Healy called Nine’s decision not to bother with the Women’s World Cup “a slap in the face”. In Amazon’s media release, Healy notes that “the women’s game continues to grow globally and maintaining strong visibility is essential to that growth”, adding: “It’s great that fans will be able to watch the tournament on Prime Video for free.”
In 2023, Amazon acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights to all men’s and women’s ICC events until 2027. This includes the Men’s and Women’s World Cups, T20 World Cups, Champions Trophy, U19s World Cups, and the World Test Championship Final.
Last year, Prime offered short 10- and 25- minute highlight packages from the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup for free on Prime Video.
Alexandra Gilbert, head of content at Prime Video Australia, said “we’re not only delighting our customers and maximising the visibility for these outstanding athletes – but also inspiring the next generation of female cricketers.”
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Free TV make a very good point. it’s not like free to air networks are buying up Wallabies, Socceroos and Matildas games and putting them behind their own paywalls.
Oh wait.