Sky Sports announces new deal with ICC to cover biggest events in international cricket

Sky Sports has secured the rights to show international cricket’s biggest events including the ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC World Twenty20 and ICC Champions Trophy.

The agreement means Sky Sports viewers can enjoy exclusive live coverage of 14 ICC competitions, offering over 250 days of live cricket between 2015 and 2023. 

STAR has been awarded the global rights from the ICC and Sky Sports has an exclusive arrangement with STAR for broadcast in UK and Ireland.  Sky’s existing agreement for ICC cricket includes the Cricket World Cup next year.

It is the 24th rights agreement secured by Sky Sports in 2014 and includes three events taking place in England and Wales - the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2017.

The ICC rights awarded to Sky Sports are:

• ICC Cricket World Cup – live coverage of the next two tournaments and qualifiers; from England and Wales in May 2019 and India in February 2023.
• ICC World Twenty20 – live coverage of the next two competitions; from India in March 2016 and Australia in October 2020.
• ICC Champions Trophy – live coverage of the One-Day International tournament to be held in England and Wales in June 2017 and India in October 2021.
• ICC Women’s World Cup – live coverage of the next two Women’s World Cups, to be held in England and Wales in August 2017 and New Zealand in November 2021.
• ICC Women’s World Twenty20 - live coverage of the next two Women’s World Twenty20 competitions; to be held in the West Indies in November 2018 and South Africa in October 2022.
• ICC U19 World Cup – live coverage of the next four events; from Bangladesh in January 2016, New Zealand in January 2018, South Africa in January 2020 and the West Indies in January 2022.

The deal further strengthens Sky Sports’ unrivalled live cricket schedule, offering an unprecedented choice of international and domestic coverage from around the world.  The schedule features all of England’s home Tests, One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 matches – including next summer’s Ashes – as well as cricket from Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies.

Also, for the first time from 2015, over 60 IPL matches will be added to the schedule, meaning only on Sky Sports can viewers enjoy the world’s top four domestic Twenty20 cricket competitions from India, England, Australia and South Africa.

Barney Francis, Sky Sports Managing Director, said: “We’re delighted to be awarded the ICC rights and strengthen Sky Sports’ unrivalled commitment to cricket even further.  Our cricket schedule keeps getting stronger and by adding events such as the World Cup, World Twenty20 and Champions Trophy, we’ve never offered our viewers such choice from all formats of the game.”