With an upcoming T20 World Cup co-hosted by the U.S., the International Cricket Council is looking to grow the game stateside, and hoping to find the right media partner to help them. Last week, ICC execs toured the country, speaking to broadcasters during a moment of rapid change for the industry.
Both TV and digital rights starting in 2024 will soon be up for grabs, though it’s quite possible one broadcaster will come away with exclusive rights across platforms. For instance, CBS, ESPN and NBC—all of whom met with the ICC last week—each are attempting to grow both their traditional networks and newer streaming services. The ICC also met with Amazon, which is already airing cricket in other countries, as well as Willow TV, a pay-TV channel focused on the sport.
Previously, the ICC sold its rights globally, though it’s now looking to do territory-by-territory deals, and hoping to benefit from streamers seeking committed audiences.
“This market hasn’t properly been able to ever take one package of cricket rights and say, ’OK, I’ve got with this a major tentpole… to build a subscription strategy around every year,’” ICC chief commercial officer Anurag Dahiya said in an interview. “It gives us the opportunity to work directly with broadcasters who carry our rights in different territories, and that helps us promote the sport that much better.”
The ICC organizes traditional, days-long test cricket events as well as shorter 50-over and T20 events. Offering more than 70 matches per year on average, this set of rights also includes the growing women’s cricket game. This spring’s Women’s Cricket World Cup set records for digital engagement. The ICC netted more than $2 billion for its global rights during its last eight-year cycle (2015-2023). The U.S. is currently the ICC’s third-biggest viewership market, behind India and the U.K., and officials said it could soon move into second.
William Mao, Octagon’s SVP of global media rights consulting, estimated there are 20 to 40 million cricket fans in the U.S. More important than those numbers, he said, is that the sport offers a defined customer base.
“The key question that a property will have to answer, particularly on the streaming side, is to be able to say, ‘Hey, I can help you drive this many incremental subs.’ Incremental is the key piece,” he said. “If you are a sport like cricket that has an ability to index uniquely in certain demographics and also not have a lot of high overlap with other sports fans, you can uniquely and credibly say, ‘We’re going to be able to drive new audience for you.’”
Cricket’s value in the modern streaming world was evident in India last month, as Viacom18 and Disney split $6.2 billion in rights for Indian Premier League action.
Here, the ICC may have to balance seeking exposure, particularly on traditional cable networks, with finding a more unified home on a streaming service committed to getting the most out of the property. Most recently, the MLS prioritized the latter option, consolidating its local rights so it could put all of its content on a yet-to-launch, Apple-exclusive service.
“If somebody is happy to run a major promotional campaign on digital,” Dahiya said, “I think that may have ultimately more value than having it run on a cable channel with not too much word out there that it’s available.”
