The Ashes may have been returned to Australian soil but while the players prepare for a dead rubber Boxing Day Test, another war is being waged behind the scenes.

The TV broadcast rights for the next five years of the game are due to expire next year and the field to pick them up is wide open.

Channel Nine has refused to pay a multi-million-dollar fee for the final bid in cricket's TV rights auction.

That means the undisputed home of cricket for the past 40 years could lose its title.

Analysts, like sports media lecturer Doctor Sam Duncan, said that could ultimately mean consumers would end up paying for sport they're used to getting for free.

"It's going to affect all consumers, it's going to affect all sports lovers because there is an assumption that we will continue to be able to watch all forms of cricket from Tests right down to our domestic Big Bash League on free to air television," he said.

"That still might be the case, [but] there's a very real chance that cricket, in particular the Big Bash, might go to Foxtel or indeed streaming [services] and that will change the way we watch it."

"We might have to start paying to watch cricket in Australia and that is a huge shift in Australian cricket and for Australian cricket lovers."

Dr Duncan said Cricket Australia stood to gain a lot from a competitive negotiation process.

"The Ashes ratings are booming, Channel 10 has been bought out by CBS, an American media organisation, and they might be about to flex their financial muscle so it will be competitive," he said.

"On top of that you've got Foxtel [and] they've made it no secret that they'd like a big slice of the pie too."

New players, old rules, same game

Keen competition for the Big Bash League could see the price of its broadcast rights surge. ( AAP: David Moir )

Australia's anti-siphoning laws mean Test matches, one-day internationals and Twenty-20s played in Australia can't be exclusively shown on pay television but the lucrative Big Bash League is exempt.

Australian Financial Review writer John Stensholt believes its value could treble in the upcoming negotiations.

"Cricket Australia get about $100 million from broadcasters now, $80 million of that's for Tests and one-dayers and $20 million's for Big Bash," he said.

"You could see a situation where the Big Bash money trebles even to $50 or $60 million annually because of the competition with the networks.

"The Tests will probably stay the same, maybe even go down because of the popularity of the shorter form of the game these days in comparison."

The great unknowns are pay TV service Foxtel as well as a new generation of players vying for increasingly in-demand streaming services.

Mr Stensholt believes even Facebook could soon become a contender for Australian sport, after recently placing a losing bid for the Indian Premier League.

"I think you will see a time very soon where the Facebooks, the Googles and the Twitters also have a look at something like cricket rights too," he said.

"But I think that's probably more in a context of being an adjunct to the bigger players to amplify cricket's audience.

"I think Cricket Australia will try and play it pretty smartly by trying to get as much cricket to as many eyeballs as possible."