Cricket broadcast rights left in limbo

The radio broadcasting of NZ Cricket’s home internationals and domestic games is up in the air with NZME opting out of renewing its rights.

Radio Sport, which is owned by NZME, said yesterday NZME had chosen not to renew the rights to broadcast live commentary from next summer.

NZ Cricket, which says it is ‘‘committed to bringing radio commentary to as many New Zealanders as possible’’, will now test the market and ‘‘investigate partnerships with other parties’’.

NZ Cricket said it was unable to comment on the ongoing negotiation process with other parties.

Radio Sport took to Twitter to announce the news. ‘‘Radio Sport still holds the rights until the end of this summer,’’ it said.

‘‘After lengthy discussions with NZ Cricket, we have not been able to reach agreement.’’

Stuff understands NZME’s offer for the five-year rights was significantly below NZ Cricket’s expectations. NZ Cricket offered a two-year deal which NZME rejected, thereby ending the exclusive negotiation period.

In a later statement NZME’s head of talk, Jason Winstanley, said: ‘‘We have been in discussions with NZ Cricket for some time but have not been able to reach agreement on the rights.

‘‘Our cricket coverage has run at a loss – something we have previously been prepared to wear but we are now taking the opportunity to rethink our offering in this space.’’

Radio Sport would continue to provide ‘‘match updates, robust opinion, in-depth analysis and plenty of talkback’’, he said.

On the viewing side, in October Spark Sport won the rights to broadcast New Zealand cricket for six years.

Sky Sport holds the rights for all domestic cricket but when that deal ends in April, Spark Sport will be the official rights partner for all cricket matches played in New Zealand.