The England and Wales Cricket Board is seeking a threefold increase in the value of its domestic broadcast rights through the launch of its new Twenty20 competition, according to The Telegraph.
The UK newspaper said the start of a tender process in May will see the ECB seek between £230m (€265.9m/$289.3m) and £250m per year for its rights for five years from 2020 to 2024, compared to the £75m it currently receives annually from pay-television broadcaster Sky for exclusive coverage of all live cricket in England.
In January 2015, Sky agreed a two-year extension, from 2018 to 2019, to its partnership with the ECB, covering exclusive live rights to England’s home fixtures, county matches, women's and age-grade cricket.
The Telegraph said the rights will be split into four packages in order to attract terrestrial broadcasters to bid. ECB chief executive Tom Harrison is reported to have told a meeting on Monday that advanced talks are being held with public-service broadcaster the BBC, which is said to be confident of becoming the ECB’s free-to-air partner for the new Twenty20 competition.
The ECB on Monday presented a detailed overview of current proposals around a new T20 competition to its 41 members. If agreed, the new tournament would start in summer 2020 and would sit alongside the existing T20 Blast event.
Key elements of the proposed new competition include eight new teams, as opposed to 18 counties, playing 36 games over a 38-day summer window with four home games per team. The ECB is pledging that all games will be televised with “significant” free-to-air exposure, with a reported target of eight games to be broadcast in this manner.
The Telegraph said the BBC is poised to re-enter the cricket market by agreeing a deal for highlights of this year’s Champions Trophy one-day international tournament, which is being hosted by the ECB. A deal would mark the first time the BBC has broadcast cricket since the 1999 World Cup.