👉 Background: Seven Network is the biggest free-to-air network in Australia. We're talking AFL, My Kitchen Rules, Sunrise, and the FIFA Women's World Cup. But now, Seven could be saying "thank you, next" to the England Cricket Board.

👉 What happened: The English Cricket Board is looking for over $50 million for the rights to broadcast their next two Ashes series. And if Seven pulls out, Nine Entertainment would be the front-runners to score the deal.

👉 What else: Seven's already got broadcasting rights for the Ashes series that are hosted in Australia until 2031 - so snagging the England Ashes series would complement that deal. But it's  likely that this deal would be a loss leader for the network.

What's the key learning?

💡The loss leader strategy is a business strategy where a company sells a product or service at a non-profitable price.

💡The idea is to to bring in new customers or attract more viewers, and then cross-sell higher margin products to those customers. You'll often see this strategy in retail, think: Aldi's "Special Buys" aisle or Kmart's "Everyday Low Prices" deals.

💡Loss-leading strategies exist in broadcasting too, especially through live sports. Sports broadcasting deals will often run at a loss so that the network can promote their upcoming, higher-margin shows in the ad breaks... like MAFS.. And this can set their programming up for the whole year.

‍