The shake-up of Australian cricket has continued apace after the country’s cricketing board handed the rights to games down under, including the next Ashes series, to BT Sport.
The deal has been signed after the conclusion of the Ashes with reports that BT has stumped its arch rival in the chase for the lucrative rights.
BT is said to have paid £80 million to Cricket Australia to show matches played in the country, including the next Ashes tour in 2017-2018. It will be the first time Sky has not shown an England cricket overseas tour since 1990.
The telecoms company has continued to chip away at Sky’s dominance in the pay-TV sport market, having landed an exclusive deal to show European football from this year on top of the slew of Premier League and rugby matches it shows on its sports channels.
The loss of the cricket rights is a blow for Sky, which had to dig deep to maintain its stranglehold on the best games in the Premier League at a rights auction in February. It paid the equivalent of £11 million a game in that process, which may have inhibited its ability to match BT’s intent to win cricket rights. Sky’s current deal with Cricket Australia is worth around £50 million.
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BT is only a bit-part player in cricket, having to date only broadcast domestic games from the West Indies. Winning the rights to the Ashes is a major coup as it also lands a blow on Sky, which has fashioned a reputation as the home of cricket.
The Australian team lost the Ashes but won the final game at the Oval. That will raise expectations of a fightback on home soil in 2017 and draw in viewers expecting a closely fought series.
BT and Sky went head-to-head for the rights to Spanish football matches this month. BT appeared to have won the rights to La Liga games until a dramatic U-turn from the owners of the rights invited Sky back to the table and handed them the deal.