Heavyweight pay-TV broadcaster Sky New Zealand has extended its rights deal with the Cricket Australia (CA) governing body for the next four Australian summers.
Through this renewal, Sky NZ will continue as the exclusive New Zealand broadcast partner for top-tier international cricket (as well as select domestic matches) played in Australia during the next rights cycle.
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The last partnership between Sky and CA covered the 2019-25 cycle.
The partnership begins at the start of the 2025-26 season, in which Australia’s men’s team will take on England in the next edition of the iconic Ashes series, as well as playing home fixtures against South Africa and India.
The following season, 2026-27, New Zealand’s men’s team will play four tests in Australia, while the women’s team will play a limited-overs series in that country.
In addition to international fixtures, this deal will include domestic games from the men’s and women’s Big Bash League (Twenty20) tournaments.
This tie-up adds to a rapidly expanding cricket rights stable for Sky NZ – late last month, the pay-TV giant recouped domestic rights through a deal with New Zealand Cricket (NZC) between 2026 and 2032.
Sky will cover all home games played by the country’s Black Caps (men’s) and White Ferns (women’s) national sides during that cycle.
This deal represents a return to the Sky fold for NZC, with the last deal between the two parties having expired in early 2020. Rights were then held for three years by the Spark Sport service before that network shut down in mid-2023 and rights were transferred to the TVNZ public-service free-to-air broadcaster (which had been showing a slice of games since early 2020).
In terms of other major cricket rights held by Sky, the broadcaster has a deal with the International Cricket Council through 2028 (it is currently showing the men’s ICC Champions Trophy through this deal), while it also shows international cricket held in India.
February also saw Sky secure rights to Indian Twenty20 cricket’s Women’s Premier League (WPL) and Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise competitions.
Outside of cricket, meanwhile, Sky NZ also holds a range of major rights across sports including rugby, soccer, and golf.
Domestic rights to international cricket played in Australia are held by pay-TV’s Foxtel and free-to-air broadcaster Seven Network, through 2030-31.
Elsewhere in cricket, Lancashire, one of English cricket’s professional county clubs, has today announced a multi-year deal with UK sportswear brand Castore.
Through that tie-up, locally-based brand Castore will act as the club’s kit supplier and exclusive retail partner from the 2025 season onwards.
The kits will cover all competitions played by the men's and women’s Lancashire sides, as well as training kits for both squads.
This adds to the various cricketing deals Castore already has in place – a tie-up covering the men’s and women’s England national teams for a decade was announced in 2021 (with GlobalData Sport valuing it at $25 million overall), while a deal with NZC is also in place.
The new Lancashire kits will be unveiled in time for the teams’ first fixtures of the season.
