ECB pushing for more free-to-air coverage with ITV open to showing Test cricket

The England and Wales Cricket Board is planning to offer more rights packages to free-to-air broadcasters in the next set of TV contracts that begin in 2029. The aim is to broaden the sport’s appeal.

While the ECB will not follow Cricket Australia by offering a bespoke free-to-air package for domestic Test matches, long-term partner Sky Sports could share some of its portfolio during the next rights cycle with ITV, whose £1.6bn takeover by Sky’s US parent company, Comcast, is expected to be completed next year.

ITV is understood to be interested in the rights to the Hundred, which the ECB will facilitate by making more packages available on a non-exclusive basis. As well as the Hundred, the ECB will also offer FTA packages for a number of England’s men’s and women’s white-ball matches.

Although formal discussions with ITV have yet to take place as the Comcast takeover remains subject to regulatory approval, Sky has privately indicated a willingness to share some of its sports rights with its new partner for promotional purposes. ITV is open to broadcasting a Test match for the first time since 1968.

The BBC showed Test cricket from 1938 until 1998, when it lost the rights to Channel 4, which was then outbid by Sky Sports as Test cricket disappeared behind a paywall in 2006.

Channel 4 bought the rights for England’s Test tour of India at the last minute during the 2021 Covid-19 lockdown, but no home Test matches have been broadcast FTA since Channel 4 covered England’s Ashes victory in 2005.

No England’s home Test match has been broadcast on free-to-air television since Channel 4 covered the 2005 Ashes. Photograph: Getty Images

Sky’s exclusive domestic rights package began the following year after a long period when the subscription channel focused on covering England’s winter tours, as well as World Cups, beginning with Graham Gooch’s memorable tour to the West Indies in 1990.

Sky is halfway through a four-year deal worth £220m a year that gives it the live rights for all England’s men and women home matches, the Hundred, T20 Blast and some county cricket. It is expected to retain those rights from 2029 to 2033.

The next rights cycle is particularly significant for the ECB as it will be the last contract when England matches are sold together with the Hundred, as the new franchise owners will take charge of selling rights as a stand-alone event from 2033.

The proposed Comcast purchase of ITV has created an opportunity for more cricket to be made available on FTA television, although any decision by Sky to share content would wait until the start of the next contract.

Any cricket offered to ITV would also be shown live on Sky, which previously gave up its exclusive rights to England’s victory in the men’s 2019 World Cup final in a deal with Channel 4 as it deemed it to be an event of national significance.

Sky and ITV are understood to be open to collaborating on other sports rights deals if the takeover receives regulatory approval, a process that is expected to take between 12 and 18 months. ITV already sub-licenses Football League and Carabao Cup matches from Sky, with 20 games shown simultaneously on both channels, and that arrangement could be extended further in future.

ITV has invested heavily in improving its sports offering in recent years, securing all of England’s matches in the Six Nations and every game in the new Nations Championship on top of England’s men’s and women’s football qualifiers.

The ECB enjoys a close relationship with Sky despite the inevitable tensions arising from rights negotiations and a move to increase access to cricket by sharing occasional events with ITV would chime with the governing body’s own plans, particularly regarding the Hundred.

BBC Sport is the Hundred’s FTA rights holder and is expected to bid again when the auction takes place next year, but it may be forced to share the rights, with the ECB intent on taking a different approach to the FTA market.

As well as ITV, Channel 5 and YouTube have expressed interest in either live or clips rights for the Hundred, which generated more than 30m page views for the BBC this summer.

Sky declined to comment, but a source said it was premature to discuss its plans for content sharing during the regulatory approval process.

ITV was contacted for comment.