hang on, page-31

It has probably been posted on here so forgive me if it has. The cricket rights could be locked away soon. Ten clearly needs sport, but i don't think the one off events (US Masters, Melbourne Cup, Olympics) are the right events for them. They need a form of competition where they continually have viewer return to them, like the NRL and AFL. Cricket becomes the only real sport available for them to bid on. Personally, i think they are no chance of getting the cricket, but Ten seems keen to break the cricket up into packages. This is what they tried to do with the NRL by buying the origin series or certain key days on a weekly basis. This obviously didn't work. However, i could see 10 going all out to get the Big Bash League. If they could get one of the forms of cricket, it would be a real coup for them.

HEre is part of an article from the Australian (sorry if has been posted)

"Seven is vying with Nine and Ten for the cricket rights, having made an offer said to be worth about $320m.

It is understood Seven tabled four bids, presenting a range of options, including separate offers for the Big Bash League, currently held by Fox Sports, One Day Internationals and International Test matches.

The battle for the cricket rights could become a repeat of last year's fierce bidding war for the National Rugby League rights, which became a two-horse race between Ten and Nine.

Ten is said to be prepared to pay $350m million for rights to all forms of cricket, but Nine has a trump card with a contractual last right of refusal, giving the incumbent the ability to see other offers and match them.

If the cricket rights are sewn up this month, the auction for the Olympic rights could see Nine and Ten return to the fold if the rights are cheap enough.

Alternatively, the free-to-air networks may wish to engineer an agreement for the Olympics rights with Foxtel to spread the cost burden.

The free-to-air networks are in a strong position in their Mexican standoff with the IOC because Australia's anti-siphoning regime ring-fences sports events such as the Olympics on free-to-air television.

The IOC has previously warned that the rules were choking off competition and could inflict commercial damage on the valuable TV rights that bankrolled the Olympic movement.

The governing body could also split the Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 rights package, and sell Rio at a later date when the ad market may have experienced a rise in spending levels. The IOC is under pressure to strike a deal soon, as the Sochi 2014 Winter Games are just 10 months away."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/broadcast/olympic-broadcast-rights-in-crisis/story-fna045gd-1226614389333