Channel 5 to show live England cricket matches dropped by BBC

Cricket will have a new live free-to-air TV broadcaster from 2025 after Channel 5 stepped in to pick up four T20 internationals from the BBC.

Pay TV platform Sky Sports had held the exclusive TV rights to England’s home international cricket since 2005, but for the last five years a portion has been carved off for the free-to-air market.

Since 2020, the BBC has broadcast highlights of every day’s play in international cricket, eight live matches in the men’s and women’s Hundred, and four T20 internationals (two for England men, two for England women) each summer.

When renegotiating its new deal, which is yet to be announced but is understood to be agreed, it became clear that the BBC no longer wished to carry the England T20s, meaning live international cricket would revert to being entirely behind a paywall.

However, it is understood that Channel 5 has stepped in with a deal to pick the four matches up on a four-year contract. A source said the deal has not yet been finalised but it is understood to be in the final stages of negotiations. While the station showed highlights of international cricket for 14 seasons from 2006 to 2019, this is its first foray into a live cricket broadcast. Channel 4 and ITV showed little interest in the rights for the T20 internationals.

The BBC will continue to show a similar number of matches in the Hundred, as well as international highlights. It also has the rights to digital clips on its website and social media, which are seen as key to growing the sport’s appeal. The BBC also holds exclusive domestic UK radio rights and for ICC tournaments until the end of 2028 through Test Match Special.

Sky will continue to show every men’s and women’s international, every match in the men’s and women’s Hundred, and a selection of men’s and women’s county fixtures, including all knockout white-ball matches. Counties also broadcast their own fixtures via YouTube streams, the vast majority of them free. Sky’s rights deal, which is worth £220m per year to the ECB, was extended in 2022, from next year until the end of the 2028 summer.

It is unclear, at this stage, how much Channel 5 has paid for the rights, or who it will use in its presentation team, but it will be unable to contract Sky staff. That means faces familiar to BBC audiences such as Michael Vaughan, Phil Tufnell, Ebony Rainford-Brent and Sir Alastair Cook could be involved. Channel 5 has a small sporting portfolio that includes some boxing and snooker. Recently, the channel broadcast highlights of the 2023 Cricket World Cup.

The next big cricket rights battle brewing is for the Cricket Australia deal, which is up for renewal this year. TNT Sports (formerly BT) has held this deal since before the 2017/18 Ashes, but Sky is likely to enter the market for what is a five-year contract containing two men’s Ashes series, including next winter’s hotly anticipated meeting between Pat Cummins’s and Ben Stokes’s teams.

The ECB and Channel 5 declined to comment.