Foxtel, Seven closing on cricket broadcast deal
Foxtel, News Corp and Seven are closing on a broadcast rights deal with Cricket Australia. Paramount and Ten's offer of $1.5 billion over seven years is not accepted. Seven will retain the free-to-air portion of the rights. Big Bash League is set to be reduced to 10 games per team plus a final series. The league is also expected to have a smaller audience. It is expected that the announcement will be made in the new year. CA's initial courting of Paramount, Ten and Nine was headed off by fears that Australia's third commercial network was not a safe bet in terms of audience size.
