The governing body of English cricket is reportedly in the final stages of a broadcast deal that would see Sky Sports retain coverage of international and domestic cricket through until 2034.
The Times reported Monday that Tom Harrison, the ECB’s outgoing chief executive, is keen to complete the deal before he departs.
Under the current arrangements, which are in place until 2024, Sky has exclusive coverage of Test Matches, One Day Internationals and T20 Internationals played in England, alongside selected country championship, T20 and The Hundred Matches. The BBC is able to show highlights from international cricket, four international one day matches (two each from the men’s and women’s game) and selected matches from The Hundred.
Harrison is said to view The Hundred – the shortest form of the game – as his legacy and believes a new broadcast deal would secure it while giving long term financial security to the ECB.
The present deal was signed in 2017 and is worth about £220 million a year. It is not expected that this will increase under any new deal.
However, the negotiations cannot be completed until all the counties have agreed to give the ECB and Sky media rights to their grounds. Each of the first class counties owns the rights to broadcast their own matches and many want to continue to hold the streaming rights, some of which have been offered free of charge.
