BT Sport set to renew Ashes rights
August 16, 2021
By Nik Roseveare
BT Sport is reportedly set to announce that is has acquired the live broadcast rights for this winter’s Ashes cricket series having outbid its main rival Sky Sports.
BT Sport paid £80 million (€94m) to acquire all Cricket Australia’s UK rights for 2016 to 2021, and are close to extending that deal, according to a report by The Daily Mail.
While the contract has yet to be signed, ECB sources are said to have been told to expect the Ashes to be televised by BT Sport – assuming Covid-19 restrictions don’t prevent the tour from happening.
Australia has dealt admirably with the pandemic in comparison to most other countries, reporting less than 1,000 Covid-related deaths. However, the country is now dealing with an outbreak of the Delta variant, and vaccination roll out has been sluggish, with just 15.3 per cent of the population fully vaccinated as of August 1st. Despite this, ECB chief executive Tom Harrison said last week he was “very confident” the Ashes will take place.