Sky Sports Retains Cricket Rights
Sky Sports has retained its television rights to the International Cricket Council’s major tournaments until at least 2023 after the ICC sold its rights to 18 tournaments from 2015.
The deal is understood to be the ICC’s biggest ever deal, worth in the region of £1.56bn, according to media reports – more than twice the amount Star paid for rights to international cricket for 2007-2015.
The winning bidder has the option to sell off territorial rights to host broadcasters around the world, which could potentially have opened the door for a bid from BT Sport.
However, the rights went to Star – also part of the Rupert Murdoch stable – with Sky Sports now set to continue its long-term coverage of events including the Cricket World Cup, World Twenty20 and the Champions Trophy.
It is the 24th rights agreement secured by Sky Sports in 2014 and includes three events taking place in England and Wales – the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2017.
Barney Francis, Sky Sports managing director, said of the deal: ‘We’re delighted to be awarded the ICC rights and strengthen Sky Sports’ unrivalled commitment to cricket even further. Our cricket schedule keeps getting stronger and by adding events such as the World Cup, World Twenty20 and Champions Trophy, we’ve never offered our viewers such choice from all formats of the game.’
Cricket coverage on Sky Sports features analysis from some of the biggest names in the sport, including Sir Ian Botham, Shane Warne, David Gower, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Andrew Strauss and David Lloyd.
The money from the new rights deal will be split among the ICC’s members but under the new revenue share model pushed through this year by the three major nations – India, Australia and England – they will receive a bigger slice.
The value to English cricket, once sponsorship and advertising are added, is estimated to be around £200 million over the eight-year cycle.
