Foxtel, the Australian pay-TV heavyweight, has today unveiled exclusive, multi-year rights extensions through which it will continue to cover international cricket from England, India, and South Africa.
These long-term deals entail Foxtel’s linear and streaming channels continuing to hold rights to cover all top-tier national team cricket from that trio of countries. This includes all Australian tests, One Day International (ODI), and Twenty20 (T20I) tours in India and South Africa.
In England, however, the deal does not cover the iconic Ashes series (between England and Australia), which in the men’s version is a five-test contest and for the women includes games across all formats. Free-to-air broadcaster Nine Network has been reported in the last month to have secured Ashes rights for series in England through the 2031 edition.
These tie-ups come as a welcome boost to Foxtel in terms of its cricket portfolio after Amazon Prime Video announced earlier this month that it has secured rights to major events organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the 2024-28 cycle. Foxtel previously held these rights and indeed covered the recent ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
Amazon’s sporting footprint in Australia had, up until that point, been insubstantial.
Australia’s men’s team is currently scheduled to play one test series each in India and South Africa between now and the end of the ICC’s current tour schedule in 2027.
The renewals maintain partnerships between Foxtel and Cricket South Africa (CSA), the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), and the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI), which have been in place for over a decade. The previous deals between Foxtel and the English and South African bodies were struck in September 2020 (ECB), and December 2020 (CSA).
Foxtel already holds a swathe of exclusive domestic cricket rights for games played in Australia, as well, through a joint deal with FTA broadcaster Seven unveiled in January that has a total value of $1 billion.
It also covers action from New Zealand and from the franchise-based Indian Premier League tournament (which is sold separately to Indian national team TV rights).
In total, Foxtel has claimed its cricket portfolio extends across 1131 tests, 2525 One Day Internationals, and 389 Twenty20s.
Rebecca McCloy, Foxtel Group’s executive director of commercial for sport, said: "We have been proud partners of Cricket South Africa, the English and Wales Cricket Board, and the BCCI for more than a decade. These renewed deals mean that the Foxtel Group will continue to deliver customers unrivaled coverage of the biggest and best line-up of international and local cricket.
“Alongside our comprehensive rights to domestic cricket, which we have until 2031, this announcement is great news for our millions of subscribers who can continue to enjoy the most extensive coverage of cricket in Australia and around the world.”
