England are facing a possible TV blackout for their Test tour of Pakistan in October with not a single UK broadcaster having bid for the rights for the three-match series.
The Guardian has learned that a tender document issued last month by the Pakistan Cricket Board has not produced any interest from the UK, with none of the broadcasters even entering negotiations at this stage.
England’s most recent Test series in Pakistan in December 2022 was televised by Sky Sports, which holds the exclusive rights for all home Test matches. Ben Stokes’s tourists made history on that trip with England becoming the first side to secure a 3-0 series win in Pakistan on the back of some extraordinary Bazball batting and disciplined bowling, although that remarkable feat has not sparked interest in this year’s tour.
Sky is understood to have provided a firm indication to the PCB that it is not intending to bid, while TNT Sport has declined to enter the negotiations and has no plans to do so.
To complicate matters further the PCB has engaged a local marketing agency to sell the overseas rights to the series rather than a global company such as IMG or Pitch International, who secured a late deal for England’s Test tour to India this year. Channel 4 bought the rights for England’s Test tour to India in 2021 during the third Covid lockdown, but that was a one-off with there being a large TV audience at home and the channel has not since bid for Test cricket.
Sky was the home of England’s away Test series for almost 30 years since it became the first broadcaster to televise an overseas tour live when Graham Gooch’s side visited West Indies in 1990, but has increasingly withdrawn from the market in recent years. The company has taken a strategic decision to focus its resources on ensuring it maintains exclusive rights for England’s home series and events such as the World Cup, T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy, which will be held in Pakistan next year.
Sky’s reasoning is based on analysis that the cost of buying overseas rights and covering tours with its high production values is hard to justify given the limited number of additional subscribers they attract, particularly at a time of year when it has so much live football to broadcast. Sky Cricket’s winter programming is as a result dominated by overseas T20 leagues including the IPL, SA20 and ILT20, with the commentary and production provided by local teams.
TNT Sport has stepped into the void to some extent by picking up rights for Test series in Australia, India, New Zealand and West Indies, but has shown no interest in the Pakistan tour. The Warner Bros‑owned broadcaster has also made cuts recently and walked away from negotiations to extend the deal for European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup rugby, with Premier Sports this month picking up the rights for next season’s competitions.
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The lack of interest from broadcasters will be a huge source of frustration for cricket fans. The challenge of building an audience for Test cricket was shown at the start of England’s series against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford on Wednesday, where several thousand of the 14,500 people who had bought tickets in advance failed to show up.