Sky Sports keeps BT at bay

Sky Sports has resisted the pressure from BT Sport to retain the ICC events in the latest cycle of rights.

On the same day as the ICC announced a new deal with Star India and Star Middle East for the global rights, Sky Sports confirmed it will retain an exclusive deal with Star to broadcast in the UK and Ireland.

The ICC rights for 2015-2023 are significant for the UK market as England and Wales will host the Champions Trophy in 2017 and World Cup in 2019 as well as the Women's World Cup in 2017.

BT's emergence into the UK market has brought increased competition for Sky as witnessed by their strong push for Premier League and UEFA Champions Leagues rights. BT has so far dipped its toe into the cricket market by showing the Caribbean Premier League and is understood to be keen to go further.

Negotiations for the ECB's next batch of rights will begin shortly and Sky could face greater competition, especially if the ECB decides to package their live rights differently rather than in the single bundle which Sky currently has in a deal running until 2017 with the option of a two-year extension.

The new ECB chief executive, Tom Harrison, who was announced last week in news overshadowed by the fallout from Kevin Pietersen's autobiography, is currently a senior figure at sports marketing agency IMG and has been involved with TV rights including the IPL, which Sky will show for the first time next year.

The IPL was previously available on ITV which made it a rare free-air-offering in the UK. From next year, the only cricket available without a subscription package will be England's home international highlights which appear on Channel 5. There has been no live England cricket on free-to-air TV in the UK since 2005.