TNT Sports Close to Securing UK Rights for England's White-Ball Tour of Australia
TNT Sports is close to securing live UK rights to England's white-ball tour of Australia in November, The Guardian reported on Monday. The deal under discussion could also bring one match to free-to-air television, meaning it would be shown without a subscription.
That match would be on Channel 5, which has never broadcast an England game from overseas. Channel 5 is also in advanced talks with Cricket Australia over a highlights package for the eight-match tour. It is separately in discussions about live rights for one of the five T20 internationals. A T20 is the shortest format, with 20 overs a side and usually a little over three hours of play.
The last England overseas game shown free-to-air in the UK was the Test series in India in 2021, which Channel 4 broadcast. Free-to-air matters for casual fans because it reaches viewers who do not pay for sports channels.
TNT Sports has broadcast England's last three Ashes series in Australia. Its rights for the men's Ashes tour last winter came through a one-year contract that has now expired. Sky Sports and DAZN have also shown interest in bidding for the white-ball tour, according to The Guardian.
TNT Sports and Channel 5 are both owned by the US media group Paramount Skydance. Channel 5 also picked up a UK highlights deal for the Commonwealth Games last summer, while TNT Sports held the exclusive live rights to that event. Channel 5 holds live rights to two home men's and two women's T20s each summer under a four-year deal that began in 2026.
Cricket Australia is understood to be confident the TNT Sports deal will be completed. TNT Sports declined to comment.
The tour starts with a 50-over warm-up at the WACA in Perth on 7 November. A three-match one-day international (ODI) series, a 50-over format, follows from 13 November at Perth Stadium. Five T20s then begin a week later. The first of those is in Melbourne on Saturday 21 November, with a 8:15am UK start.
England named their squads for the tour on 13 October, and all-rounder Jacob Bethell has returned to the white-ball group, Reuters reported.
For fans in Britain, the practical question is simple. Which matches can they watch live, and on what channel? The talks are not finished, so the picture could still change before the first ball is bowled in Perth.
