Originally Posted by Cricketblade:
“The t20 final got 2 million + on sky so on a major free to air broadcaster the potential is huge!!”
There is a huge difference between an international sporting event and a domestic competition. And that even applies to soccer.
The same as Australia has a very different culture to the UK, where sport on television is far more popular than it is here. It also has one of the lowest penetrations of pay TV of all western economies, and is more deregulated in terms of commercial benefits to broadcasters.
Last year the top five highest rated programmes in Australia were all domestic sports – the NRL and AFL grand finals, and the three-match State of Origin series.
I cannot even guess when the last time a British domestic sporting event came anywhere even close to a top ten. In 2011 no sport made the top 20, despite Manchester United playing in a Champions League final. Chelsea won the Champions League in 2012 yet it did not even make the top ten programmes on ITV the week it was played.
Yet 2012 was a year where TV ratings were dominated by sport, but the London Olympics, Euro 2012, and Murray winning Wimbledon. All international events. The Six Nations delivers big ratings, it has never translated to success for club rugby union when it was free-to-air.
The differences between the UK And Australia mean you cannot make any connexions between the success of the BBL on Ten and what a would an ECB T20 competition could do on a UK free-to-air network.
And the difference between the level of general interest in international sport compared to domestic competitions mean you cannot use the rating of World T20 final as an indicator of potential. All the evidence, of all sports, proves it is not one.
There is no doubt that the number of viewers will be much higher on a free-to-air channel than on a premium subscription one. But given the cost-per-viewer that the latter is willing to pay a switch is almost guaranteed to lose money in comparison. And that includes factoring in higher sponsorship revenue that could come from the greater exposure.
There are valid reasons for the ECB to want to put cricket on free-to-air television, but you are not going to get England-sized ratings for Yorkshire vs Surrey, or see a Nine vs Ten style bidding war.