The Foxtel Group has this morning announced that they have secured multi-year rights extensions to retain select international cricket rights for it’s Fox Cricket channel on Foxtel, and streaming platform Kayo Sports.
The rights extensions include all men’s and women’s Australian Test, One Day International and T20 tours that are played in India, England (excluding The Ashes which are reportedly set to be shared between Channel 9 & Foxtel) and South Africa which will be shown across Foxtel and Kayo Sports.
The news today comes after Prime Video announced earlier this week that it had secured a four-year deal to provide exclusive live broadcast rights in Australia for ICC cricket matches, snatching the rights from Foxtel/Kayo which aired the recent ODI World Cup with Channel 9 airing just the Australian games.
The rights would give Prime Video’s Australian subscribers access to exclusively stream all men’s and women’s events, including the Men’s and Women’s Cricket World Cups, T20 World Cups, Champions Trophy, U19s and the World Test Championship Final as part of their subscription at no extra cost.
Read the full press release from Foxtel below:
The Foxtel Group has announced exclusive, multi-year rights extensions with the cricket boards of South Africa, England and India, cementing its position as the home of an unrivalled line up of local and international cricket in Australia.
The long-term deals will see all competitions and all Australian men’s and women’s Test, One Day International (ODI) and T20 tours played in South Africa, England (except The Ashes) and India, exclusively available for Australian cricket fans on Foxtel and Kayo Sports.
Foxtel Group Executive Director, Commercial – Sport, Rebecca McCloy, said:
“We have been proud partners of Cricket South Africa, the English and Wales Cricket Board and the BCCI for more than a decade. These renewed deals mean that the Foxtel Group will continue to deliver customers unrivalled coverage of the biggest and best line-up of international and local cricket.
“Alongside our comprehensive rights to domestic cricket, which we have until 2031, this announcement is great news for our millions of subscribers who can continue enjoy the most extensive coverage of cricket in Australia and around the world.”
In addition to these partnerships, Fox Cricket is also home to New Zealand Cricket and the Indian Premier League as well as all Australian men’s and women’s Tests, One Day Internationals, T20s, and Big Bash League and Women’s Big Bash League Matches, all available on Foxtel and Kayo Sports.
Ms McCloy continued:
“These deals reinforce Foxtel Group’s long-term commitment to providing a premium and popular mix of more than 50 sports from around the world, delivering unparalleled access to our more than three million sports subscribers.”
Foxtel Group’s suite of sports broadcasting partners span AFL, AFLW, NRL, NRLW, Cricket, UFC, Netball, Formula 1, Supercars, Boxing, UFC and include exclusive blockbuster international coverage.
Over the last 12 months, 53 million hours of cricket was streamed across Foxtel Group, almost two thirds of which were streamed on Kayo Sports, demonstrating the strength of the brand in growing the Group’s streaming audiences.
The announcement comes as Fox Cricket revealed its 2023/24 commentary team at its ‘Summer of Cricket’ launch event. The suite of experts includes cricket royalty such as Wasim Akram, Ravi Shastri and Brian Lara along with returning international experts Isa Guha, Michael Vaughan, Ian Smith and Harsha Bhogle. The team will be anchored as usual by Adam Gilchrist and feature home-grown favourites such as Mike Hussey, Mark Howard, Mel Jones, Brad Haddin, Brendon Julian, Allan Border, Brett Lee, Kerry O’Keeffe, Mark Waugh, Megan Barnard, Sarah Jones and more.
Current Australian champions including David Warner, Usman Khawaja and Alyssa Healy will also spend time behind the microphone outside of their playing commitments as they transition into commentary roles, post-career.
The Fox Cricket line-up boasts a total of 1131 tests, 2525 ODI’s and 389 T20 internationals – a total of 4045 international matches in all formats.
