Domestic county cricket could return to free-to-air television in the UK as soon as the 2015 season, according to Richard Gould, chief executive of Surrey.
The England and Wales Cricket Board’s current rights deal with pay-television broadcaster BSkyB, worth an estimated £280m (€353.4m/$451.7m), was signed in 2012 and covers the period from 2013-2017 with an option for a further two years.
The counties are said to be seeking a terrestrial platform in a bid to develop a new audience for the domestic game and address falling match attendances. It is believed the two-year option has to be signed by the end of the year and with the Sky deal up for renegotiation, the ESPN Cricinfo website said “something approaching a consensus” has formed among the county chief executives to press for a return of some cricket on free-to-air television.
“The highest priority of county chief executives at the moment is getting county cricket back in front of the pay-wall,” Gould said. “We need to get a domestic highlights package on free-to-air television as soon as possible. It would help promote and develop the game. We have looked at the contracts and we understand we can do that now.”
He continued: “Sky have been hugely supportive of the game and they may take the view that seeing some cricket in front of the pay-wall acts as an advert for the excellent coverage they offer behind the pay-wall. Sky would retain first choice of the domestic games they show, but there is no reason why we could not put together a highlights show of five or six minutes per game from other matches and bundle them together.
“We need to get more out of the domestic game, and the T20 game in particular. Sky currently pays around £65m a year for coverage which, to put it in perspective, is about the same amount as a (football) club towards the bottom of the Premier League – a club like Burnley – receive from them each year. We are currently offering great value for money.”
Sky told ESPN Cricinfo that there had been no discussion about the 2015 season and declined to confirm that it had taken the option to extend its deal up until the end of 2019.