ECB Targets More Free-to-Air Cricket as ITV Signals Interest in Test Matches
The England and Wales Cricket Board is planning to offer more rights packages to free-to-air broadcasters when its next television contracts begin in 2029, with ITV open to showing Test cricket for the first time since 1968 (The Guardian).
The move would mark the most significant expansion of freely available cricket on British television in two decades. No home Test match has been broadcast free-to-air since Channel 4 covered England's historic Ashes victory in 2005. Test cricket moved behind a paywall in 2006 when Sky Sports outbid Channel 4, having previously shown only England's winter tours and ICC World Cup events.
Sky is halfway through a four-year deal worth £220m a year that gives it live rights for all England men's and women's home matches, the Hundred, the T20 Blast and some county cricket. That deal runs until 2029, when the next rights cycle begins. Sky is expected to retain its rights for the 2029–2033 period, but the landscape around it is shifting.
The ECB will offer free-to-air packages covering a number of England men's and women's white-ball matches — the shorter limited-overs formats — and will make more rights packages for the Hundred, its 100-ball city franchise competition, available on a non-exclusive basis. ITV is interested in pursuing its own bid for Hundred rights. Any cricket offered to ITV would also be shown live on Sky.
What gives the ITV interest real weight is the looming Comcast factor. Comcast's £1.6bn takeover of ITV's broadcasting arm is expected to be completed in 2027, pending regulatory approval that could take 12 to 18 months. Formal discussions between the ECB and ITV have yet to take place because that takeover remains subject to regulatory sign-off.
Sky, for its part, has privately indicated a willingness to share some of its sports rights with ITV for promotional purposes. Sky and ITV are also open to collaborating on other sports rights deals if the Comcast takeover goes through. The two broadcasters have form: Sky gave up its exclusive rights to England's victory in the men's 2019 World Cup final so that Channel 4 could show it live, deeming it an event of national significance.
The ECB will not, however, follow Cricket Australia's lead in creating a bespoke free-to-air package specifically for domestic Test matches. Instead, the expanded free-to-air offering focuses on white-ball cricket and the Hundred rather than Tests.
For cricket fans who have grown accustomed to needing a subscription to watch the game live, the prospect of more matches appearing on free television carries genuine appeal. The BBC showed Test cricket from 1938 until 1998, when Channel 4 took over. Channel 4's last-minute acquisition of rights for England's Test tour of India during the 2021 Covid-19 lockdown offered a brief, pandemic-era reminder of what free-to-air cricket looked like.
The 2029–2033 cycle is also the last contract in which England matches are sold together with the Hundred. From 2033, the new Hundred franchise owners will take charge of selling rights to the short-form competition as a standalone event — a structural shift that could reshape the market all over again.
For now, the pieces are in motion but not yet in place. The ECB wants more cricket on free television. ITV wants in. Sky appears willing to share. Whether all three align will depend on a corporate takeover clearing its regulatory hurdles — and on the oldest dance in broadcasting: who pays, and how much.
