Kerry Packer’s rebel cricket code World Series Cricket makes its TV debut on his Nine Network with Match One, featuring Australia versus West Indies, from VFL Park in Melbourne.

Local coverage to Melbourne is limited to only two hours in the afternoon, while the full day’s play from 11am to 6pm was to be broadcast in Sydney and other capital cities.

Packer had created World Series Cricket in response to losing out to ABC’s inferior bid to gain exclusive television rights to test cricket. The new competition pioneered night-time cricket, giving the game a prime-time profile, and generated other innovations in the production of cricket coverage. The creation of World Series Cricket was dramatised in the mini-series Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War, which aired on Nine in 2012.

Meanwhile, traditional Test cricket, now without many of the major stars that had defected to the Packer camp, commences for the season with the first test from Brisbane, featuring Australia versus India, broadcast on ABC.

Source: TV Times, 26 November 1977

	ABV2	HSV7	GTV9	ATV0
6AM			6am Gene Autry (B&W)
7AM			7am The Super Flying Fun Show. Marilyn Mayo	7am The Early Bird Show
8AM	8am Sesame Street
9AM	9am Close 9.30 Play School 9.55 Close	9am Romper Room. Miss Patricia	9am Here’s Humphrey	9am Rainbow 9.30 Fat Cat And Friends
10AM	10am For Schools: Behind The News 10.20 Close	10am Hazel 10.30 Crossroads	10am Dinah!	10am Swami Sarasvati 10.15 King’s Kitchen 10.30 Shoulder To Shoulder
11AM	11.58 Cricket: First Test. Australia v India. Live from Brisbane	11am My Good Woman 11.30 Willesee At Seven (Rpt)	11am Another World 11.55 News	11.30 Rooms
12PM		12pm The Julie Andrews Hour 12.45 Tennis: The Davis Cup. Australia v Italy. Live from White City, Sydney	12pm The Mike Walsh Show	12pm As The World Turns
1PM			1.30 Days Of Our Lives	1pm Ryan’s Hope
2PM	2pm ABC News 2.10 Horizon 5. Neil Inall 2.29 Weather 2.38 Cricket (cont’d)		2.30 The Young And The Restless 2.55 News	2pm Keep Pace With Harriet
3PM			3pm General Hospital 3.30 Search For Tomorrow	3pm The Mothers-In-Law 3.30 Julia
4PM			4pm Cricket: World Series Cricket. WSC Australia v WSC West Indies. Live from VFL Park, Melbourne	4pm The Cisco Kid 4.30 Green Acres
5PM	5.30 Flashez. Ray Burgess, Mike Meade			5pm Family Affair 5.30 Temperatures Rising
6PM	6.05 Cricket (cont’d)	6pm Doc 6.30 Seven National News. Brian Naylor	6pm The Young Doctors 6.30 National Nine News. Eric Pearce, Peter Hitchener	6pm News At Six. Bruce Mansfield 6.30 $30,000 Treasure Hunt. Chard Hayward, Marie van Maaren
7PM	7pm ABC News. Geoff Raymond 7.26 Weather 7.30 This Day Tonight. Peter Couchman	7pm Willesee At Seven. Mike Willesee 7.30 Young Ramsay	7pm A Current Affair. Mike Schildberger 7.30 Donny And Marie	7pm Blankety Blanks. Graham Kennedy 7.30 The Waltons
8PM	8pm Oh No — It’s Selwyn Froggitt! 8.30 The Liver Birds	8.30 Movie: The Tall Men. 1955 [IMDB]	8.30 The Mary Tyler Moore Show	8.30 Movie: Sunrise At Campobello. 1960 [IMDB]
9PM	9pm Cakes And Son 9.50 ABC News, Weather		9pm The Bob Newhart Show 9.30 National Nine News
10PM	10pm Sow What? 10.15 Soccer: The Big Match	10.55 Nightmoves. Lee Simon	10pm Rhoda 10.30 Star Trek
11PM	11.10 Close		11.30 Napoleon And Love	11.15 Bearcats
12AM		12.55am Close	12.30am Movie: Cabin In The Cotton. 1932 (B&W) [IMDB]	12.15am Movie: The Glass Sphinx. 1968 [IMDB]
1AM			1.50 Movie: Bureau Of Missing Persons. 1933 (B&W) [IMDB]
2AM				2.30 Close
3AM			3am Movie: Dead Ringer. 1964 [IMDB]
4AM
5AM			5am Seaway (B&W) (Continues to 6am)