ICC deal with Amazon Prime Video ‘proves the point’ that streaming giants are out for Australian sports rights
Amazon has landed the exclusive broadcast rights for International Cricket Council (ICC) games in a four year deal spanning 448 live games from 2024 to 2027.
It marks the end to 15 years of ICC cricket on Foxtel and Nine. Mumbrella understands that Foxtel did not opt to renew their respective deal.
Under the new deal, Amazon’s Prime Video will exclusively stream all men’s and women’s ICC events, including the Men’s and Women’s Cricket World Cups, T20 World Cups, Champions Trophy, U19s and the World Test Championship Final. The broadcast rights will only apply to the streaming platform’s Australian customers.
The new deal comes less than a week after Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland introduced a new bill to parliament proposing updates to the government’s anti-siphoning scheme, alongside other changes.
Currently, the ICC games are not included in the anti-siphoning list, which primarily covers games played by the Australian team in Australia or New Zealand.
Free TV CEO Bridget Fair told Mumbrella that the agreement “proves the point” that as the regulations currently stand, “streaming giants would be coming for our sports rights here in Australia”.
She pointed to the impacts of cost-of-living pressures, asserting that allowing access to “key sporting events to be dictated by what subscriptions Australians can afford” was not aligned to the Australian way of life.
“The Government’s new Bill to expand the current anti-siphoning rules to apply to subscription streaming services is an important new measure, and this deal shows there is no time to waste in getting this done. However the Bill still has an element of analog rules in a digital world with the failure to include free streaming rights in the proposed model. Australians should be able to watch key sporting events whether they choose to access our services through terrestrial broadcast or online streaming.”
She continued: “It might also be time to look at whether the limitation of cricket games on the list to those played in Australia or New Zealand is working for the Australian public. We should be able to watch our national team play no matter where the game is taking place.”
Commenting on the deal, head of Prime Video Australia and New Zealand, Hushidar Kharas, said that live sporting events was amongst the most-requested content from its customers.
“We are thrilled to be able to offer our customers the live broadcast of the Cricket World Cup included in their Prime membership! The Cricket World Cup is one of the most viewed sporting events in the world; the recently concluded edition was watched by hundreds of millions of people!”
ICC chief executive, Geoff Allardice added: “We are very excited to be entering a new four-year partnership with Prime Video for ICC cricket rights in Australia. The recently concluded Men’s Cricket World Cup has highlighted the interest and passion for ICC Events across the globe, and especially in Australia where cricket fans have enjoyed the recent success of their men’s and women’s teams. We look forward to working with Prime Video Australia to provide an innovative coverage of world class cricket to more fans in Australia.”
Kayo has lost so much content: Bein, cricket, grand slam tennis, football etc. I assume they will now reduce their price point to reflect their weaker offering.
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It also proves the point that the ICC doesn’t care about growing cricket, they only care about money.
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