Australian pay-television operator Foxtel has announced a rights deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) ahead of Australia’s upcoming tour of England.
The deal will run until 2023 and cover 12 tours of England featuring the likes of India and South Africa. The agreement will not include the Ashes series between England and Australia, according to the TV Blackbox news website.
The deal has been signed as Australia prepares for its Twenty20 and one-day international tour of England, which gets underway on Saturday.
The agreement reaffirms Fox Sports as the ECB’s rights-holding broadcaster in Australia after the broadcaster’s previous deal with the organising body expired last year. The two parties had been in talks over a new deal before the Covid-19 outbreak.
The previous four-year deal, signed in 2016, granted Fox Sports rights to all England home Test matches, but did not include the Ashes. Commercial free-to-air broadcaster Nine held exclusive rights in Australia to the 2019 Ashes series.
Australia’s upcoming tour of England will include matches at The Rose Bowl in Southampton and Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester.