ECB agrees new five-year media rights deal with ESPN Caribbean

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and ESPN Caribbean today announced a new five-year agreement which will give the broadcaster exclusive multimedia rights to ECB’s playing programme across the Caribbean territory.

As part of the agreement, ESPN will air live coverage in the Caribbean of all international and domestic cricket played in England and Wales over the next five summers.

The broadcaster’s coverage encompasses all England Men’s and Women’s action this summer and begins tomorrow with the first Test from Lord’s in the two-match NatWest Test Series #No Boundaries against Pakistan.

Other highlights in the deal include the 2019 Specsavers Ashes Test series against Australia, future tours of England by West Indies and India as well as a range of men’s and women’s domestic cricket including the new eight-team competition set to start in 2020.

ECB’s Chief Commercial Officer Sanjay Patel said: “Today’s announcement is good news for Caribbean cricket fans. It means they can enjoy all the action from our domestic and international playing programme across a variety of different platforms – and will help give our national men’s and women’s teams, and our county teams an even greater global profile.”

Scott McGlone, ESPN International’s Director of Programming, said: “We are pleased to announce our first ever agreement with ECB in the Caribbean.ESPN is committed to bringing the very best cricket action to fans in the West Indies and what better way to demonstrate this than our alliance with the ECB which represents both the storied history of the game and its bright future of growth across all formats.This agreement reinforces our commitment to providing fans in the region with high quality and locally relevant programming.”

Tomorrow’s first Test from Lord’s will air live starting from 6 am (Caribbean ET) on ESPN2 Caribbean and stream live on ESPN Play (www.espnplay.com) — ESPN’s multiscreen live and on-demand broadband service.

ESPN Caribbean will also televise the next week’s benefit match between the West Indies and the ICC World XI at Lord’s to help rebuild Caribbean cricket grounds damaged by the 2017 hurricanes.

The addition of exclusive ECB coverage augments ESPN Caribbean’s pre-existing Caribbean cricket portfolio, which includes exclusive coverage of the 2018 ICC Women’s World T20 (hosted by the West Indies), the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup and Cricket West Indies Super50 Cup.