Seven Network takes Court action to terminate broadcast rights agreement with Cricket Australia

The Seven Network's has commenced action to obtain a Court declaration to allow them to terminate a multimillion dollar broadcasting rights deal with Cricket Australia.

The legal action by Seven West Media Ltd, the Network's owner, in the Federal Court aims to end its $450 million TV rights deal for Test cricket and Big Bash League (BBL) while also obtain compensation for "multiple quality and standard breaches".

The bulk of these alleged breaches arise from the quality of the men's BBL, which Seven has unfavourably compared to the Indian Premier League (IPL) - the world’s top T20 tournament.

In the claim, Seven argues its media rights agreement (MRA) with Cricket Australia meant the BBL should have been equal in the quality and standard of the IPL but was far from it in a number of key areas, including scheduling, quality of players and the failure to have auctions for each franchise.

Seven’s claim also states that Cricket Australia should not have scheduled BBL matches in competition with men's internationals.

In response, Cricket Australia has defended its coverage during the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons, in which it broadcast every WBBL and BBL game, as well as “highly acclaimed international schedules” amid the challenges the pandemic presented.

In a statement it advised “in the circumstances, CA is astonished that Seven has brought this unwarranted action which will be strenuously defended.

“CA remains enormously proud of the efforts of the Australian cricket family including players, match officials, sponsors, stadium operators, host governments, staff and volunteers whose hard work, dedication and expertise allowed us to deliver two exceptional cricket seasons in unprecedented circumstances.

“We look forward to another hugely entertaining summer, including hosting the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup as defending champions, welcoming a record six international touring teams to Australia, as well as the eighth and 12th editions of WBBL and BBL respectively.”

With the last two seasons of BBL impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, media reports during that time have referred to Seven’s dissatisfaction with the quality of the tournament, particularly with teams using lower-grade players as top-ups.

Seven’s claim states that Cricket Australia's organisation of the 2021/22 BBL season undermined "the franchise rivalry necessary for matches of a quality and standard which is at least equal to the highest quality and standard in the world".

In the same season, Seven took issue with Cricket Australia's decision to schedule the first 12 matches in either Tasmania or Canberra. With Court proceedings unlikely to commence until 2023, broadcasting of matches during the 2022/23 summer are unlikely to be impacted.

Image: Big Bash League at Perth's Optus Stadium.