Via the AFR:
Cricket Australia is poised to sign a $1 billon plus broadcast deal with Foxtel and Seven West Media, beating out incumbent partners Network Ten and Nine Entertainment.
The landmark decision from Cricket Australia to put a huge chunk of its sport behind a paywall will see limited-overs international matches, both 50 over and Twenty20 forms, taken off free-to-air television for the first time in 40 years.
International limited overs cricket involving the Australian team played locally is on the anti-siphoning list, which dictates the sports free-to-air networks have first rights to bid on it. Foxtel needed a free-to-air partner in order to do a deal, but there is a question regarding 50 over and Twenty20 international matches moving exclusively onto pay TV.
That must surely mark some milestone in the process of capitalism engulfing culture.
