The International Cricket Council, the sport’s global governing body, has launched a tender process for the sale of media rights to its major events for the next eight year cycle spanning 2015 to 2023.
The period in question features two editions apiece of the organisation’s flagship World Cup, World Twenty20 and Champions Trophy tournaments, along with qualifying events for the former two events.
India, the sport’s most lucrative market, will host the 2016 World T20, 2021 Champions Trophy and 2023 World Cup. England takes the Champions Trophy and World Cup in 2017 and 2019 respectively before the 2020 World T20 heads to Australia, offering further valuable representation of cricket’s core markets.
Two editions of the Women’s World Cup and Women’s World T20 are also included alongside four Under-19 World Cups, with broadcasters and media companies invited to bid for rights packages either globally or on a territory-by-territory basis. The ICC will begin issuing invitations to tender on July 14 and must receive expressions of interest by email no later than 9am Dubai time on August 1.
The ICC earned $1.1bn (€797m) for its global media rights in the current eight-year period from 2007 to 2015 in a deal with pan-Asian broadcaster ESPN Star Sports.
The ICC’s financial and commercial affairs committee chairman Giles Clarke said: “Revenues from media rights sales underpin the future growth and development of cricket by ensuring certainty of revenues to ICC members.
“In the past few years, ICC events have grown as global properties and are now recognised as premium sports events around the world. The next eight years will see the ICC major events being played in cricket’s core markets, thereby making the media rights package highly attractive.”