UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB will broadcast free-to-air highlights of the forthcoming Ashes cricket series between Australia and England on its Pick TV channel, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.
Sky acquired the exclusive live UK rights to the 2013-14 Ashes series from the Cricket Australia governing body and had control over whether to agree a highlights deal with a terrestrial broadcaster.
The report said that Sky had failed to reached an agreement with public-service broadcaster the BBC or commercial broadcaster ITV, meaning that a one-hour daily highlights programme would be offered on Pick TV, which is available through the Sky, Freeview, Virgin Media and Freesat platforms.
Sky had stipulated that the highlights of a day’s play could not be offered elsewhere until 10pm UK time, when the teams are beginning to prepare to resume play in Australia.
The 2013-14 Ashes series gets underway with the first Test in Brisbane on Thursday.