The ICC Women’s World Cup will be removed from behind a paywall after Alyssa Healy described the Nine Network’s decision not to show the tournament as a “slap in the face”.
Nine released a statement on Sunday morning announcing their live and free coverage of the 2022 Men’s T20 World Cup and the 2023 Men’s fifty-over World Cup.
But there was no mention of the upcoming Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, for which Nine are joint rights holders in Australia with Foxsports and the Kayo streaming service.
The decision prompted Healy to offer to pay for Kayo subscriptions for some of her Twitter followers, tweeting “In light of this morning’s “interesting” news - I’m going to offer up 20x @kayosports Gift Cards for people to be able to watch our World Cup next month… Only available to Aussie based watchers (sorry). Hit me up if you want one. #BreakTheBias."
In light of this mornings “interesting” news - I’m going to offer up 20x @kayosports Gift Cards for people to be able to watch our World Cup next month…
— Alyssa Healy (@ahealy77) January 23, 2022
Only available to Aussie based watchers (sorry). Hit me up if you want one. #BreakTheBias https://t.co/KsYOQsgelM
Speaking after the third T20I of the Ashes series at Adelaide Oval was washed out, Healy said she made the offer in the realisation that not all cricket fans could afford to pay for subscription service and expressed her disappointment in Nine’s decision.
“I mean, it's going to be televised, people are going to be able to watch it,” said Healy. “It's just simply the fact that it's not going to be on free-to-air television which makes it accessible to the majority of Australia.
“I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a step backwards. I think it's a little bit of a slap in the face to say that we're not commercially viable, that someone doesn't want to stick their hand up and say, you know what, we're going to put this on the telly so that everyone can watch it.
“So it's a little bit hard to take in that regard.”
In response to Nine’s decision not to broadcast any of the matches on its free-to-air channels, Sporting News understands Fox Sports will make the tournament available as part of its free content package, meaning viewers can watch the matches through the Kayo app without paying for a subscription.
Viewing figures for the WBBL and women’s internationals have grown significantly over the past ten years and the WBBL now has the fourth highest ratings for any domestic sporting league in Australia after the BBL, AFL and NRL.
While the second Ashes T20I was abandoned due to rain after just four overs were played and the third match was called off without a ball being bowled, the audience numbers were strong for the first match, in which Tahlia McGrath’s all-round performance led Australia to a nine-wicket victory.
The match on Thursday night was simulcast on Fox Sports and the Seven Network and drew an average audience of 302,000, which was a 46% increase on the T20I audiences for the last Women’s Ashes four years ago, despite being up against the Australian Open match between Nick Kyrgios and Daniil Medvedev, which drew 1.1 million viewers.
“I think people get obsessed with bums on seats and numbers at the ground,” Healy said. “But I guess the reality of modern day sport at the minute is that it's not realistic for people to get there and watch the games live.
“So for us it's probably more relevant to TV audiences that we're getting.”
“I think it probably gets lost a little how many people are out are actually watching our game and supporting our team and obviously we would probably like that to continue and I guess make it more accessible for the whole of the country to be able to get behind us and show our worth to cricket.”
