Cricket's big experiment has grown into one of Australian television's top assets, with a Big Bash bidding battle looming at the end of next season as Channel Nine try to wrest the lucrative rights from incumbent broadcasters Ten.

The value of hosting the competition is believed to have tripled during Ten's tenure - the free-to-air network forked out $20m for a five-year deal which began in 2013 and the next contract is expected to go for upwards of $60m with Channel Nine head of sport Tom Malone saying back in November that his company "Want everything".

Network Ten have played a huge role in growing the BBL which has transformed from a domestic competition into a global phenomenon boasting the seventh highest average attendance of any professional sporting league in the world, and a television audience that consistently tops more than one million viewers per night.

Saturday night's Sydney Smash at the SCG between the Sixers and Thunder will be the 12th sellout of the tournament already, and close to 1.2 million viewers are expected to tune in.