BT Sport has retained the UK rights to Australian men’s and women’s home cricket internationals until 2025, including live Ashes coverage.
In total, the rights deal includes four England tours down under, starting with the Ashes in December.
BT Sport will also show live coverage of all international tours of Australia. After this year’s Ashes, Australia will take on New Zealand and Sri Lanka during 2022.
The renewed deal builds on BT Sport’s portfolio of cricket that includes West Indies and New Zealand cricket. It ends months of speculation over a deal, with Sky going head-to-head with BT for the Australia cricket rights.
Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said
We loved bringing the highs, lows and controversy of the Ashes to our viewers in 2017/18 and relish the opportunity to bring our viewers all the action from both a men’s and women’s Ashes in 2021/22. BT Sport’s cricket content has continued to grow since we signed our first rights deal with Cricket Australia, and we are delighted to be bringing more world class men’s and women’s cricket from Australia to fans across the UK.”
Sky Sports is in the last year of a five year deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board. Its deal means Sky has been able to cover the Ashes whenever it is played in the UK. BT’s deal with Cricket Australia means its sports channels have covered Ashes series played in Australia.