A big money battle between Sky and BT is likely to push the broadcasting deal for English cricket past the £1bn mark and put the BBC in pole position to secure the free-to-air rights put up for sale by the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Final offers have to be submitted to Lord’s between 9am and 10am on Wednesday following a month during which the ECB has received presentations by broadcasters bidding for the rights deal which will run between 2020 and 2024.
The Guardian understands the bidding war between Sky and BT for the bulk of the rights is too close to call and that money will be a major determinant in the outcome of that duel, not least because a £1.3m annual payment to the 18 counties from the new Twenty20 tournament has to be accounted for, as well as the initial expense of establishing the competition.
The rights have been split into five packages and are expected to bring in around £250m per year with an announcement on the TV future of the sport expected early next week at the latest.
The more money raised by the Sky versus BT battle, the freer the ECB will be to take a broader approach towards the 12 Twenty20 fixtures which have been promised for free-to-air television.
It is thought the five-strong panel charged with making the decisions recognises the value of returning live cricket to the BBC after an 18-year absence.
Those five are Tom Harrison, chief executive of the ECB, Colin Graves, the ECB chairman, Barry O’Brien, chairman of Glamorgan, Lord Patel of Bradford, an independent director on the ECB board, and Sir David Scott, the former Channel 4 executive.
Whatever happens, Sky’s monopoly on the ECB’s cricket rights, which it has held since 2006, will come to an end. The decision is seen by many as crucial to the future of the sport.
Roger Mosey, former director of sport at the BBC, said the ECB giving Sky exclusivity was always short-sighted and he extolled the benefits of bringing live cricket back to the corporation.
“We always said as terrestrial broadcasters that it was a mistake for cricket to put all its eggs into the pay basket,” he said. “There’s a neatness in exclusivity and a huge amount of money by going with one paid broadcaster but taking live cricket off terrestrial completely always looked like a mistake.
“I think it’s good the ECB has recognised it needs to broaden the canvas again. I’m sure it’s disappointing for Sky to lose exclusivity but it’s in the interests of cricket for live games to be back on terrestrial if possible.
“It’s not just loyalty to my old employes but the thing about the BBC is it’s got the best online site and Test Match Special. In terms of impact you can get on the BBC it’s objectively a better set of plays because you have radio, online and TV all harmonised to support your main live cricket proposition if you have one.”
The BBC is expected to face competition for the free-to-air games package from ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. It was originally thought Discovery, which owns Quest, was also in the market for the rights but it is understood the company never considered bidding.
“The thing about terrestrial TV schedulers is that they would never leap at the chance of having five day cricket,” added Mosey, “whereas T20 is something you could imagine being an attractive proposition and the tender is obviously designed to bring in as many bidders as it can.”Technology giants including Facebook are expected to submit bids for clip rights, with Harrison keen to expand the appeal of the sport to new audiences.
BT Sport underlined the seriousness of its intention to take on Sky over live cricket rights last year when it signed a deal to show the 2017-18 overseas Ashes series as part of a five-year deal with Cricket Australia.
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