Pay TV could be the financial lifeline Cricket Australia has been hoping for amid speculation Foxtel has lobbed a bid for the right to broadcast every ball bowled from 2019.

Sources close to the discussions believe that Foxtel, which is controlled by News Corp, has made a hefty offer to broadcast all the Test matches, one-day internationals and Twenty20 games on Fox Sports. The offer also includes the digital rights to cricket.

Foxtel has made an aggressive offer to make pay TV the new home of cricket. Credit:AP

Under the Foxtel proposal, free-to-air television networks would be given the option to broadcast test matches in simulcast arrangement. But sources close to the discussions said Foxtel's offer includes the condition that all Twenty20 matches and the majority of one-day international games would be kept for pay TV alone.

It signals how aggressive Foxtel is willing to be for exclusive sports content that can be kept behind the pay-TV "pay wall". The proposal in its current form would have caused tensions with anti-siphoning rules, which prevent certain high-profile sporting events from being shown on pay-TV. About a quarter of Australian homes have Foxtel.