Dazn will broadcast live cricket in the UK for the first time this month after acquiring the rights to Australia's two-Test home series against Bangladesh. The matches are scheduled for Darwin and Mackay in August 2026, with Pat Cummins returning as Australia's captain for the first time since the third Ashes Test in Adelaide last December (The Guardian).

The streaming platform, best known for football and combat sports, bought the Bangladesh series from Cricket Australia as a one-off deal. Cricket Australia is still searching for a long-term UK broadcast partner, with negotiations reportedly ongoing for its other properties, including England's white-ball tour of Australia this autumn and a one-off 150th anniversary Test in Melbourne next March (The Guardian).

For UK viewers, a Test series — cricket's five-day format where each side bats and bowls twice — against Bangladesh may not carry the pull of an Ashes contest against England. But it marks Dazn's first step into international cricket broadcasting. The platform's only previous cricket coverage was a joint arrangement with Sky Sports to televise the 2023 Indian Premier League, the world's biggest T20 franchise tournament, in the UK.

Dazn's UK feed for the Bangladesh series is expected to rely on the host broadcaster Fox Sports' production rather than its own commentary team. That is standard practice for overseas tours, where the visiting country picks up the host's world feed. Australia have welcomed back Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon for the series, adding significant experience to a side that also recently included three uncapped players in its squads for white-ball tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh (Reuters).

The backdrop is a broader shift in where British fans can watch Australian cricket. Sky Sports, once the natural home of England's winter tours, has stepped back from showing them. TNT Sports and its predecessor BT Sport covered England's past three men's Ashes tours in Australia. Now Dazn has entered the picture. Its acquisition of Australian satellite channel Foxtel, which holds Cricket Australia's domestic rights until 2031, gives the company a strategic foothold in Australian sport (The Guardian).

Cricket Australia is understood to be negotiating a four-year UK rights deal with Amazon and Dazn covering the next men's and women's Ashes tours and the 150th anniversary Test (The Guardian). Dazn could also bid for the 2029-30 Ashes tour rights. For now, though, it starts small: two Tests in the tropical north of Australia, a returning captain, and a first taste of live international cricket for a platform built on a very different kind of ball.