ECB Should End Sky's Monopoly of Cricket by Allowing BT a Slice of the TV Cake

The decision made over the weekend by the International Cricket Council to award the audio-visual rights for its main events to Star India and Star Middle East, with Sky Sports maintaining its own exclusive deal with the former to broadcast in the UK and Ireland, will not have surprised many.

Yet there had been plenty of feverish speculation leading up to the announcement that BT Sport were about to win another significant battle in the ongoing war between the two media giants for the right to show some of the most eye-catching events on the British sporting landscape.

But once Star had been confirmed as the winning bidder, with the organisation said to have paid $2.5 billion (£1.56 billion) for the rights to the ICC’s marquee events between 2015 and 2023, it was inevitable the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sky would also then retain its own agreement with the broadcaster.

All of which means that Sky will now be showing the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup, both of which are being held in England, as part of a plethora of other international tournaments that take place during the eight-year period in question.

However, with the organisation set to be screening the Indian Premier League as well for the very first time from next year, after stealing the hugely popular Twenty20 tournament from ITV4, fans with terrestrial TV will only have highlights of home England matches to watch in 2015.

And sadly, that simply continues the recent trend in this country which began in 2005 of Sky’s domination of the game, with only those willing to pay a subscription fee for their sports channels being able to see some of England cricket’s greatest post-war moments live.

But while BT (which is available free for those with BT broadband) may have been fighting a losing cause in trying to steal another of Sky’s crown jewels—they recently caught the latter off guard with a successful £897 million bid to show the UEFA Champions League and Europa League—that should not put the organisation off from trying to break into the sport.

In fact, it would be extremely healthy were they to compete once again with Sky for the rights to show both international and domestic cricket live in the UK when the England and Wales Cricket Board begins negotiating its new deal next year.

Sky’s current contract with the ECB runs until 2017—with the option to extend that by a further two years—although if the governing body decided not to package those rights in just one bundle, as they did last time, then BT’s hopes of adding the England cricket team to their ever-growing sports portfolio would be greatly increased.

That, in turn, could only be good for the game, regardless of just how expertly Sky have covered the sport since its very first live broadcast in this country from Sabina Park in Jamaica back on February 24 1990.

And those who have watched BT’s refreshing and often innovative coverage of both the Premier League and the Caribbean Premier League so far this season can testify that variety can often be the spice of life.

Consequently, let’s hope recently appointed ECB chief executive Tom Harrison, who has huge experience of dealing with such matters from his time spent at IMG, also thinks along those same lines when he gets to work on the most pressing item in his inbox.

And, let’s face it, familiarity does breed contempt, which is the all-too-obvious danger were Sky to maintain its iron grip over the game when the ECB comes to renegotiate its new deal next year.

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