The BBC faces battle to hold onto the highlights of England’s home games as rivals ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are all preparing bids to grab a free-to-air rights package from 2025 to 2028
The BBC faces a battle to retain the highlights of England’s home games
ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are all preparing bids to acquire the broadcast rights
The ECB has confirmed that they have an extension of the live rights deal with Sky Sports
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The BBC faces a battle to hold onto the highlights of England’s home games with ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 all preparing bids to land the free-to-air rights package from 2025 to 2028.
The ECB confirmed on Thursday that it has closed its existing live rights deal with air sports with another four years, as revealed by sports post last week, and will now launch a new tender process for England’s Test and white-ball cricket highlights.
The BBC is the existing rights holders who signed a joint deal with Sky that also gave them live rights to two men’s T20 internationals, one for women’s T20 and 18 matches in the Hundred each summer, but the ECB has chosen to to have a separate process for the highlights for the next cycle, which has a lot of interest.
Channel 4 and ITV have both significantly expanded their sports offerings in recent years, with the former buying the rights to the English test tour of India last year, while Channel 5 has a recent history in cricket, as they broadcast the highlights from 2006 to 2019.
The ECB will likely face a dilemma in choosing the highest bid, which is likely to come from one of the commercial channels, or the greater prominence of the BBC.
The BBC will now compete to retain the highlights of England’s home games
Cricket matches in England to be broadcast live on Sky Sports for another four years
The newest comes on the back of the new one air sports deal for live matches, as they want to take advantage of the extraordinary revival of Ben Stokes’ test team.
The governing body had hoped to secure Sky’s support for another five or ten years, but with little competition from other networks, they had to settle for an extension that will keep the vast majority of England’s matches behind a paywall until 2027.
The terms are similar to the current contract, which will run for two years, with Sky paying around £220 million a year for exclusive rights to broadcast home tests, one-day internationals and T20s, as well as the Hundred and the T20 Blast.
The ECB had hoped to secure Sky Sports’ support for another five or ten years
Sky has pulled back from beating England’s overseas tours in recent years, leaving BT Sport to acquire the rights to series in Australia, New Zealand and the West Indies, but remain the home of English cricket through the summer.
In addition to financial security for the ECB, the new contract confirms the Hundred’s importance to the domestic calendar, with the competition set to remain in prime-time TV slots at the peak of summer for another three years, despite objections from some provinces.
While a three-year extension is largely seen as a good deal for the sport in a tough market, the contract could disappoint traditional fans as there won’t be a significant increase in the number of Blast matches shown live – despite complaints this season.
The ECB and Sky declined to comment.