BBC Test Match Special beaten to Englands tour of India by Talksport

The BBCs Test Match Special has lost out on the rights to broadcast Englands tour of India in the New Year after being beaten by Talksport. Both broadcasters are understood to have made strong attempts to secure the rights to broadcast the five-Test series, but were informed that Talksport had acquired them.

The BBC’s Test Match Special has lost out on the rights to broadcast England’s tour of India in the New Year after being beaten by Talksport.

Both broadcasters are understood to have made strong attempts to secure the rights to broadcast the five-Test series, but were informed that Talksport had acquired them.

The deal for England’s bilateral tours of India, which is in the process of being finalised, lasts four years. In the International Cricket Council’s future tours programme, England are due to visit India for eight white-ball matches in early 2025 and the deal is expected to cover England’s next Test tour.

TMS’s deal to broadcast ICC events is up for renewal, but they are expected to extend the rights, which would include the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

To lose out on the India rights is a blow to TMS, who have seen their roster of overseas rights reduced by the entry of Talksport to the market five years ago. While Talksport broadcast England’s tour of India in early 2021, which was played during the pandemic, the long-term nature of this deal made it an especially attractive prospect that the BBC were keen to secure.

Talksport have also broadcast tours of the West Indies, New Zealand (including the Test tour next December) and Sri Lanka, but TMS have hung on to the crown jewel, the Ashes down under. They also have exclusive rights to the home summer.

The rights were sold so late that a radio broadcast of England women’s tour of India, the rights to which were wrapped up with the men’s rights, has not been possible. Both parties have indicated that they would have broadcast it, with the BBC appearing especially keen.

Adam Mountford, the producer of TMS, wrote on X: “We would have loved to have had commentary on Test Match Special on both the T20s and Test. Unfortunately despite strenuous attempts to secure the rights we have been unable to do so”. 

Alex Hartley, the commentator, tweeted: “We would have loved to cover this Test match. We tried and tried but wasn’t meant to be”.

It remains unclear who will broadcast the tour on television. Both Sky and TNT, the more regular broadcasters of cricket on TV, have looked to distance themselves from the tender process, but it is not unusual for rights for tours to the subcontinent to be organised at the 11th hour.

Earlier this year, the England and Wales Cricket Board were forced to step in and provide a six-figure sum to ensure a deal between Sky and the Bangladesh Cricket Board was possible for the men’s white-ball tour. The games were eventually shown on Sky and streamed on the ECB’s website.

At present, broadcast insiders consider bilateral rights to be declining rapidly in value, but boards still hold out for high prices. Whether it is possible for the ECB to continue stepping in to provide financial assistance is unclear.

TMS is as popular as ever, but BBC cannot fight on all fronts

Test Match Special turns 67 next year and remains as popular as ever. Producer Adam Mountford revealed on Thursday that the 24 top-performing programmes on BBC Sounds over the last year are all TMS.

It is little surprise, therefore, that myriad devotees express disappointment whenever word filters through that their rivals, Talksport, have picked up yet another set of overseas rights, as they have for next year’s Test tour of India, Bazball’s biggest challenge yet.

Since returning to the scene in 2018, Talksport have broadcast England men’s tours of Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh and India. They provide coverage that is original, informed, and distinct from TMS’s offering. Both are very decent broadcasts.

To lose the rights for a flagship series like this – and England’s next one in India, given it is a four-year deal – is a blow to the BBC, who had a serious tilt at getting them, which is not true of every defeat they have suffered to Talksport.

It follows a pattern: while BBC show everything at home and have an almost impregnable relationship with the England and Wales Cricket Board, Talksport hoover up overseas rights, and have befriended boards in all corners of the cricketing globe. There are exceptions, with BBC keeping the rights for the Ashes down under and, until now, men’s and women’s World Cups (that deal is up for renewal, but expect BBC to succeed; to lose those would be a grievous blow).

The BBC and the ECB's strong relationship means coverage of home series on Test Match Special remains assured Credit: Getty Images/Philip Brown

It might be some time since TMS had anything resembling a monopoly, but the BBC still broadcasts vast amounts of cricket on the radio. They have exclusive rights to the home summer until 2028, airing every men’s and women’s international, every county game in every format, every women’s regional game, and every Hundred game. This requires vast resource and manpower, and is a minor logistical miracle.

For the last few years, they have had some TV rights too. Showing a couple of England men’s and women’s T20s each summer, a handful of games in the Hundred, and popular Test highlights, too. Included in all that are digital clips, which are seen as a vital way to engage a youthful audience.

The free-to-air TV deal with the ECB is also up in 2024, and shapes as a fascinating battle. The ECB, under Tom Harrison’s previous regime, spent 2016 and 2017 toiling away to get BBC back on board for the first time since 1998, and would be loath to lose them at the first opportunity. They are also quietly confident that if the price or enthusiasm from the BBC was not at the right level, that other free-to-air broadcasters would be interested in picking the rights up. We shall see.

The BBC seem very keen on their international highlights and those digital clips, but perhaps a little cooler on its piecemeal live offering of the Hundred, which some insiders believe has not been helped by the questions over its future, and definitely is not helped by its clash with the Paris Olympics in 2024.

The most likely outcome appears to be the same package, but with a slight trim to the price. The decision facing the ECB will therefore be reach versus revenue: do they chase the BBC’s rivals? Or accept that the BBC can provide something that no other broadcaster can?

BBC TV has not done an especially good job of its coverage – especially of the Hundred, which is dumbed down too far (remember Love Island’s Chris Hughes’s Barbie gaffe?) – but the reach the national broadcaster provides across its many platforms is unique and irreplaceable. The game is simply spoken about in places it would not be otherwise, from the One Show to CBeebies. Either way, that deal will be sorted in the early part of next summer.

Speaking last month, the BBC’s outgoing director of sport, Barbara Slater, said that reach remains one of its last major bargaining chips in a world it is struggling to afford. They are working within obvious limitations regarding funding, which are heightened at a time when there could be a change of government.

“Sports rights in the UK have more than doubled in the past decade,” Slater said. “BBC’s income in real terms has gone down 30 per cent.”

“When we bang on the door for rights, which we want, we have to bring a package that’s about amplification, it’s about using all our platforms. The truth is we’re probably not going to be the highest bidder, and it will come down to individual governing bodies as to how they balance that reach and revenue.”

The BBC cannot be all things for all sports. Deals with the ECB, Cricket Australia and the International Cricket Council mean they cannot go full bore for every other set of rights. The same is true in TV broadcasting, even for commercial operations like Sky, whose vast spend on rights for the home summer has opened the door for TNT Sports (formerly BT) to pick up rights overseas.

On both mediums, it can be difficult for fans to follow who is broadcasting what. A further uncomfortable truth for traditionalists is that franchise T20 leagues have become easy fodder for broadcasters to pick up, as they are often cheap, and provide consistent, daily coverage for weeks on end.

TMS might be as popular as ever, but that does not mean the BBC will ever again be able to broadcast all the cricket their audience expects and desires.

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