England’s cricketers were not the only ones celebrating an Ashes win on Sunday night — so were BT Sport, who have seized the rights to the 2017-18 series Down Under from arch-rivals Sky in a major coup.
In a move that demonstrates BT will challenge Sky strongly on the cricket field as well as on the football pitch, the network have secured the UK contract for Aussie home matches from Cricket Australia for the next five years.
It is believed to be costing them around £70million a year.
he deal’s centrepiece is the next Ashes clash in 2017-18, when the home side will be hellbent on regaining the urn.
Losing that showcase series is a massive blow to Sky, whose cricket coverage has set new standards. Only football is more important to the broadcaster than cricket.
But Sky, following their £11m-a-match Premier League deal, were not able to compete with BT’s mammoth £350m offer for cricket rights, which starts with the Australia v New Zealand series in November.
And BT, as they have shown with their Champions League production, will want to put their own stamp on cricket rather than just hiring Sky personnel.
Sky, having to be more pragmatic with their rights-buying since investing so much in the Premier League, will point to a lot of the Ashes action in Australia taking place overnight.