THIS year’s Towards Zero Willowfest Australian Cricket Club Championship will reach a global audience thanks to a live stream online.
Willowest president Anthony Telfer was excited the championship would be broadcast live internationally, bringing the carnival to the world.
“It’s something we’ve been working on probably now for six months,” he said.
“It’s massive, it really is … This will be our biggest year ever in terms of exposure to the world.”
Telfer said after discussions with Cricket Victoria and Cricket Australia about whether to utilise pay-per-view or free live streaming it was decided to go the free option to help build an audience.
“(CA and CV) were excited for us but recommended we don’t go down the pay per view path, that we go down live streaming and open it to as many people as possible — especially in the first year,” he said.
“So we can develop a product and get a viewing audience free of charge and then look to go down the path of selling the TV rights off at a later stage.”
Telfer said with an Indian touring team potentially coming for Willowfest, the championships were in discussions with DD Sports — the Indian equivalent of the ABC — about the telecast.
“We are currently having communication with them and hopefully they are going to receive our live stream,” Telfer said.
“Their viewing audience is 190 million people — that’s just for their sports channel.
“So the exposure we are going to get is unprecedented”
To capture an international audience, Telfer said an Australian product was needed — which will be brought out by commentators Bill Sauer and Pat Silcox.
“We want to make it an Australian product, so we want to capture the Australian larrikinism which Bill & Pat both bring to the table,” Telfer said.
“We’re not going to turn them down and make them conservative, we want them to be who they are.”
BLive Streaming will be the company doing the production, with four cameras utilised — two roving cameras at either end, a fixed camera on the sideline and a camera for the commentary.
Two streams will be used — one without ads for DD Sports and one commercial broadcast. In 2016 BLive assisted Cricket Australia to realize a global audience for the National Indoor Cricket League growing their audience from 2,500 in 2015 to 125,000 in 2016. Some of their Clients include Cricket Australia, Cricket NSW, Indoor Sports NSW, the Newcastle Jets, The University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Health, Australian Medical Student Association, the Indoor Netball Federation of Australia, World Indoor Cricket and beyond.
The day/night match at Coomealla on December 27 will be the first telecast, with a game from the three preliminary rounds and the final championship game telecast.
Telfer said Mildura Tourism, Olam and Mildura Development Corporation would be promoted to help pay for the $15,000 product.
Willowfest is still seeking further financial support of the Live Streaming, so if your Company is interested please contact President Anthony Telfer to discuss further.
Mildura Development Corporation is pleased to support this initiative as it is an excellent opportunity to promote the quality products and education services that we offer from this region to an international destination. At the same time, Willowfest has been developing over many years and is now gaining global interest and through highlighting what the area has to offer, will increase tourism and help to promote business and economic development.
“We are a region that already has many international connections and through events such as this, we will expand our reach even further”, Ms Garonne stated
The stream will also include the Tankard Dental Willowfest Whack and Willowfest Express.
By Angus Dearlove, Sport Editor, Sunraysia Daily
