How free to air cricket stacked up in season one?
Cricket returned to TVNZ for the first time in 25 years this summer. Was it financially viable and can they sustain it? Brendon Egan reports.
Melodie Robinson sometimes lies awake at night crunching the numbers, thinking about the challenge of producing cricket on free to air television. New Zealand’s top summer sport returned to TVNZ for the first time since 1998-99 and was a resounding success in season one.
TVNZ’s live cricket coverage reached 2.54 million people across TVNZ1 and Duke and an additional 460,000 accounts on TVNZ+.
The showpiece event of the summer, the Black Caps’ T20s and two-test series against Australia drew in 1.77 million people across TVNZ1 and Duke.
Cricket is a costly sport to produce, which is not lost on Robinson, TVNZ’s general manager of sports and events.
It is understood it costs around
$150,000 a day to live broadcast a game in New Zealand, including truck, camera equipment, crew, transport, and accommodation. Ground overlay costs are typically included in the hiring fee for staging a match, rather than broadcast.
This summer featured 48 days of international cricket across the Black Caps and White Ferns, which would have cost TVNZ about $7 million to broadcast live. The T20 Super Smash, which is cheaper to broadcast and would have been less than $100,000 a day, ran over 32 match days (64 matches across both competitions).
TVNZ made it stack up financially in year one of the three-year deal, having taken over most of Spark Sport’s broadcasting rights in July last year.
Cricket is their big ticket item and worth the investment, but Robinson said balancing the finances was constantly on her mind. TVNZ worked with award-winning UK production company Whisper as their production partner for cricket.
“Cricket is expensive, it’s complicated, which is why we got Whisper on board to help with that. We’ve done it in the most thrifty, fiscally responsible way we can so we keep a really good close eye over the summer. It’s complicated, but even though it costs a lot of money to produce cricket the benefits of driving our digital vision of being New Zealand’s top entertainment and news streamer is worth the investment.”
The Black Caps, White Ferns, and domestic T20 Super Smash had provided TVNZ with enough increase in audience to justify the investment in the production.
TVNZ regularly monitored costs over the summer. They were prudent where they could save money, but not diminish the quality of the product. Season one had come in under budget, which was heartening, Robinson said.
“It keeps me up at night, but our budget is looking pretty good this year.
“We make up our positive yields against some of our other content, like the international content coming through, to balance the investment we’re making in big tent poles like sports. We think it’s really important to still have live sport like cricket in front of New Zealanders and accessible and that’s why we made that investment.”
TVNZ met with New Zealand Cricket (NZC) monthly over the summer, who were thrilled how the return to free to air had gone. NZC set a target of 2.5 million people watching over the summer, which they had exceeded. There had been a rise in youth viewership with the audience increasing through free to air, which Robinson said had been particularly pleasing.
“While our TV1 and Duke had really good generic age ranges, TVNZ+ particularly around that Australian series had massive numbers of youngsters coming in, which is awesome.
“Usually you think you can only reach youngsters if you’re on TikTok, Instagram, or some of those other social platforms. That’s not the truth now. They are on TVNZ+ and they’re in there watching cricket.”
Cricket aficionados seemed impressed too. Stephen Crossan, president at Kane Williamson’s Te Puke club in the Bay of Plenty, labelled it a major improvement on Spark Sport.
Crossan, who plays a little when the premiers are battling for numbers, had a rough time under the previous rights partner. Living rurally in Maketu (about 30 minutes drive from Tauranga) he did not have strong enough broadband to stream live sport.
That meant he often had to forego watching Te Puke’s favourite son scoring runs for the Black Caps.
“Everyone has loved it. It’s been a good change. I’m not sure what the initial problem was with Spark Sport, but it just wasn’t very good. Free to air is far better.
“It’s just been really good that it’s accessible. We struggled with Spark Sport, whether it was being rural or it wasn’t very good coverage. Free to air is just fantastic. You turn the TV on and it’s there.”
One of the best aspects for Crossan and club-mates had been flicking on the television after a game and watching their Bay of Plenty peers playing for the Northern Brave in the Super Smash.
Tim Hyndman, club captain at Wellington’s Onslow Cricket Club, also gave the coverage a thumbs up.
“TVNZ were covering cricket for many years before Sky took it on and they don’t seem to have lost any expertise there, the coverage was good.
“I thought it was excellent. They made it easier for us to put it on.”
TVNZ’s cricket contract runs through to the end of the 2025-26 season. Robinson was already starting to think about the possibility of extending that into the future. Contract talks between broadcast partners usually ramp up about 18 months before a deal is due to end.
“Over the next three months we are looking hard at our sport acquisition strategy, our road map, and how can we business big tent pole sports like cricket. We love working with New Zealand Cricket, we love the Black Caps, the White Ferns, and all the athletes. It’s been a dream ride this year.”
The weight of expectation was felt heavily by Robinson and TVNZ colleagues on the eve of the summer of cricket.
With the sport back on free to air for the first time in 25 years, there was naturally going to be plenty of eyeballs and interest, especially early on. TVNZ had to make a positive start and create a favourable impression.
Technical glitches or a shoddy presentation weren’t an option.
Planning for season two was already well underway. Robinson is set to head to London later this month for a pre-planned trip, where she will meet with production partner, Whisper, around innovations for next season.
The summer gets off to a rollicking start with Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes’ England arriving first for three tests, beginning at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval on November 28.
The Black Caps then have white ball series against Sri Lanka (in December-January) and Pakistan (March). The White Ferns face a formidable ODI Rose Bowl and T20 home series against Australia in December. Sri Lanka will also visit for matches against them in January-February.
Continuing to increase audience numbers on TVNZ+ was a key aim for season two. Robinson wanted the 460,000 accounts tuning in to grow by 10% (46,000).
Working with NZC to innovate the
Super Smash and potentially have festival weekends and set venues for the preliminary finals and finals, so people can book ahead, are other goals. There will likely be a regular night-time viewing slot for the Super Smash.
Fandom and engaging with their audience is at the heart of everything TVNZ was looking to do with cricket. TVNZ had about 1200 real-time clips on billboards at airports, on lifts, and buildings over the summer to reach people who might not necessarily come to free to air for sport.
Quirky, informative pieces with players, which aired before and during matches, or in rain delays, was another feature.
“In terms of igniting fan interest we were trying to do more of those stories to make sure people could see who the players were behind the scenes.
“The second thing was getting out amongst the fans in our coverage. Fans are everything.”
“Cricket is expensive, it’s complicated... We’ve done it in the most thrifty, fiscally responsible way we can so we keep a really good close eye over the summer.”