The England and Wales Cricket Board have revealed viewing figures for the Womens and Mens Hundred competition 2024 as part of details a further cricket broadcasting deal.
The headline good news is that Test Match Special retains UK rights for all England Womens and Mens international games (all formats) until 2028.
The BBC has not met the ECB’s asking price to show a handful of Womens and Mens T20 live and Channel 4 and ITV are not interested either. That means all live cricket will revert to Sky in the UK. Given the viewing figures for the Hundred (below) Comcast who own Sky are no doubt overjoyed.
Their subscription audience for cricket is likely mostly grumpy old men (hello there..) who like Tests and like less short form matches and in particular the shortest form of them- The Hundred.
Unfortunately the BBC has retained rights to show 15 live Hundred games split between the Womens and Mens game
Of course this is all rather one-dimensional. On many days (at one hour or another) the cricket fan can check TNT or other channels for international matches (all formats) being played around the globe as well as at least some of the twenty T20 and T10 franchises operating
viewing figures for the Hundred dropped by more than a quarter this summer, although they held up better on the BBC than on Sky Sports despite clashing with the Paris Olympics, which convinced executives in Salford to stick with the competition. Audiences for the women’s Hundred fell by 41% on Sky compared with 2023, with a 28% decline for the men’s competition, while on the BBC the men were down 25%, with the women’s figures dropping by just 2%.
Guardian 29th October 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/oct/29/cricket-england-ecb-fails-to-agree-free-tv-deal
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