Kmflett's Blog

Twenty years since the end of free to air cricket in the UK

Its twenty years since the end of free to air cricket (i.e primarily that broadcast on the BBC)in the UK. To mark this the Telegraph carried an assessment (1^st June 2026) which was of course  paywalled. I have nevertheless read it.

Sky won the contract from the ECB to show all English and Welsh cricket from 2006 and the first series was England v Sri Lanka in May 2006.

The ECB’s argument was that the money from Sky kept the game going, while those (myself included) who opposed it suggested that the reverse would happen. Those who might have become interested in cricket would no longer come across it.

Of course the broadcasting world has changed quite a bit in the last 20 years (something the Telegraph article only vaguely grasps).

There has been some free to air cricket in the meantime variously on Channel 4, Channel 5 and the BBC.

Currently the controversial franchise series The Hundred is screened on Sky and a bit on the BBC.

In 2006 Sky was owned by the Murdochs, now its in the hands of Comcast who one must suspect are not hugely sure why they are showing cricket. The Telegraph article notes that the average Sky cricket viewer is a 57 year old white male and audiences are a bit over a million, at least for Tests. Sky has the rights for England cricket played in South Africa but will not be showing this winter’s series. The resource will go instead to the Ally Pally darts whose global audience will far exceed that of the cricket.

Meanwhile BT Sport also picked up on some cricket around the globe. It had the rights to New Zealand cricket games for a bit (now ended I think) and still has the rights to West Indies domestic games. Audience figures are unknown but in the meantime BT Sport became TNT and now HBOMax. One suspects that the same view of cricket is taken as Comcast have. Why are they showing it when other sports likely get bigger audiences and more advertising revenue.

Meanwhile ways of watching cricket are changing. Games go on all day (ebb and flow being a key part of cricket) but attention spans last perhaps a few minutes at a time. Hence the focus on clips of key moments, wickets, boundaries etc. This seems to be primarily how the IPL is viewed and the BBC does a lot of it on their cricket website.

Meanwhile for the complete-ists like myself there is Test Match Special. Of course if Reform get into office the BBC probably won’t exist. Like much else in the world however there is a contradiction. Farage is a cricket obsessive and if you didn’t know that its because the interns who do his social media don’t know about cricket either…

Update

The Telegraph (where else) is reporting (2nd June 2026) that when TV and radio rights go to ‘market’ for 2029 and beyond next year they will be considering competition for the BBC’s Test Match Special. Rupert Murdoch’s TalkSport is in the frame. While their cricket broadcasts are usually OK they lack the gravitas and heft of TMS, particularly as in recent times it has done a lot to ‘modernise’ its team while keeping icons like Jonathan Agnew in place…The Telegraph reports that the ECB sees the new rights issue as a chance to be ‘creative’. Oh dear.