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Timeline of cricket on UK television

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This is a timeline of the history of cricket on television in the UK.

1930s to 1970s

[edit]
  • 1938
    • On 24 June, the BBC broadcasts cricket - England vs Australia at Lord’s - on television for the first time.
  • 1956
    • 28 April - ITV, at that point only available in the London area and in the Midlands, shows cricket for the first time, when it broadcasts the Australian touring team's match against the Duke of Norfolk's XI at Arundel Castle.[1]
  • 1963
    • 20 July - BBC Grandstand features live coverage from the first day of the 3rd women's Test between England and Australia at The Oval.[2] This is the earliest known live television broadcast of women's Test cricket.
    • 7 September – The BBC shows live coverage of the final of the first Gillette Cup final.[3]
  • 1965
    • 2 May – Sunday Cricket is broadcast for the first time. The programme, which runs throughout the afternoon on BBC2, features full coverage of a match "played under knock-out rules".[4]
  • 1968
    • 29 and 30 July - ITV shows test cricket for the only time, and only part-networked, when the last two days of the Headingley Test against Australia coincide with the launch of Yorkshire Television. The morning session is the first thing shown on Thames Television, ahead its official opening later that day.[5]
    • 7 September - The new ITV company London Weekend Television wins the rights to show the Gillette Cup final between Warwickshire and Sussex. This coverage is only partially networked, with other regions cutting off their coverage earlier,[6] but coverage of the finish - shown principally in the London and Southern areas - is faded out with six minutes to go to make way for advertising and then David Frost's programme.[7] Subsequently, there is only very occasional networked or even part-networked cricket coverage on ITV, although occasional regional coverage continues into the 1990s.
  • 1969
    • 27 April – Sunday Cricket begins broadcasting a match each week from the new Sunday League.[8]
  • 1972
    • A new one-day competition, the Benson & Hedges Cup, begins and the BBC provides live coverage of a match from each round.

1980s

[edit]
  • 1980
    • No events.
  • 1981
    • 17 May – Sunday Grandstand launches.[12] The programme includes weekly coverage of the Sunday League which had been shown every Sunday afternoon during the cricket season on BBC2 since 1965.
  • 1982
    • No events.
  • 1984
    • No events.
  • 1985
    • No events.
  • 1987
    • 16 July – Channel 4 shows the first day-long coverage of women's cricket in the UK when England play Australia at Lord's.[17] Coverage begins at 10.45 am and finishes at 6.30 pm, with breaks for the lunch and tea intervals. However, only the late-night highlights are shown in Wales, where S4C show Glamorgan against Pakistan instead.[18]
    • 9 October–8 November – The BBC covers the 1987 Cricket World Cup. However due to the time difference – the tournament is held in India and Pakistan – live coverage is restricted to the final overs of England’s matches, although England's semi-final and the final are broadcast live, and in full.[19]
  • 1989
    • No events.

1990s

[edit]
  • 1990
    • January–March – Sky shows live coverage of England's cricketing tour to the West Indies. This is the first time that live coverage of an overseas tour has been shown in the UK. The coverage is broadcast on Sky One.
  • 1991
    • No events.
  • 1992
    • 22 February-25 March – Sky shows its first major cricket tournament when it broadcasts exclusive live coverage of the 1992 Cricket World Cup. This is the beginning of Sky's coverage of the event which continues to this day and is therefore Sky Sports' longest-held set of rights. The event receives no terrestrial coverage apart from the final, when the BBC shows highlights due to England reaching the final.
  • 1994
    • The BBC shows England's home one-day internationals live for the last time.
  • 1995
    • Sky Sports take over the live rights for England's home one-day internationals, although highlights continue to be shown on the BBC.
    • 15 May – The BBC launches a monthly cricket magazine called Gower's Cricket Monthly.
    • 3 September - Cricket is shown live on a regional basis on ITV for the last time, when Yorkshire's match against the West Indies at Scarborough is shown by Yorkshire Television.[23]
  • 1996
    • 14 February-17 March – Once again, Sky Sports is the exclusive broadcaster of the Cricket World Cup with highlights shown on the BBC. The event was originally to be shown on a new cable sports channel but when the venture collapsed, Sky picked up the rights.[24]
    • June – Sky Sports broadcasts women's cricket for the first time.[25]
  • 1996
    • No events.
  • 1997
    • No events.
  • 1999
    • 20 June – The BBC broadcasts live cricket for the final time for more than 20 years when it shows live coverage of the 1999 Cricket World Cup Final, bringing to an end half a century of continuous cricket coverage on the BBC. The BBC had shared live coverage of the event with Sky Sports.
    • 1 July – Channel 4 starts broadcasting cricket following the channel sensationally obtaining the rights from the BBC the previous year.[26]
    • Sky Sports broadcasts a home Test Match live for the first time as part of a joint deal with Channel 4. This arrangement continues until 2005.

2000s

[edit]
  • 2000 to 2004
    • No events.
  • 2005
    • September – Long-form UK-based live cricket is shown for the final time on free-to-air television ahead of the full transfer of live coverage of Sky Sports. This also marks the end of Channel 4's coverage of the sport until 2019.
  • 2006
    • May –
      • Sky Sports becomes the exclusive broadcaster of all live cricket matches in the UK following the ECB awarding Sky exclusive coverage of all of England's home tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 Internationals.[27]
      • Channel 5 becomes the new terrestrial home of highlights of England cricket's home matches.[28]
      • The first edition of Cricket AM is broadcast on Sky Sports and Sky One. Based on its successful football-related counterpart Soccer AM, it broadcasts during the football off-season.
  • 2007
    • 13 March-28 April – The BBC broadcast highlights of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup. This is the first time since 1999 that cricket has been shown on BBC Television. Once again, Sky Sports holds the exclusive rights to live coverage. The BBC also shows highlights of the 2011 event.
  • 2009
    • No events.

2010s

[edit]
  • 2010
    • February – ITV shows live cricket throughout the UK for the first time in the modern era when it begins showing coverage of the Indian Premier League.[30] ITV then decides to take out a four-year deal for the event. ITV further expands its coverage of cricket when it shows highlights of the 2010/11 Ashes series[31]
    • 22–31 July – ESPN shows the inaugural Caribbean Twenty20 tournament.[32]
  • 2011
    • No events.
  • 2013
    • 30 June – Sky Sports launches its first temporary channel Sky Sports Ashes to provide full coverage of the 2013 Ashes Series. Temporary channel renames of this nature is now common practice within Sky, both for sports and movies.[33] Sky Sports Ashes subsequently returns for the 2015 Ashes series and also for the 2019 Ashes series
    • August – Cricket AM is broadcast for the final time.
  • 2015
    • February – Sky Sports takes over as broadcaster of cricket's Indian Premier League after five years with ITV.[34]
    • 14 February-29 March – ITV shows highlights of the 2015 Cricket World Cup.[35] This is the first and so far only time that ITV has covered the event. Live coverage is shown on Sky Sports, and rebrands Sky Sports 2 as Sky Sports World Cup for the duration of the tournament.
  • 2017
    • 18 July – Sky Sports is revamped with the numbered channels being replaced by sports-specific channels. One of the new channels is devoted to cricket and is called Sky Sports Cricket.[37]
    • 10 August-1 September – Sky Sports broadcasts eight matches live from the 2017 Women's Cricket Super League. This marks Sky’s first major foray into women’s cricket.[38] Sky expands its coverage the following year, showing 12 matches from the 2018 event.
  • 2018
  • 2019
    • 31 May - 14 July – Sky Sports Cricket is rebranded as Sky Sports Cricket World Cup to show live and recorded coverage of the 2019 Cricket World Cup in England and Wales.
    • 14 July – Channel 4 shows live coverage of the 2019 Cricket World Cup Final. This is the first time since 2005 that live cricket has been shown on one of the former analogue channels. Channel 4 had the rights to show highlights of the tournament.[39] Sky Sports had the live rights to the tournament but had agreed to make the final available on free-to-air television if England made the final.[40]
    • 15 September – After 14 seasons, Channel 5 shows cricket highlights for the final time.[41]

2020s

[edit]
  • 2020
    • July – Regular coverage of cricket returns to the BBC when it succeeds Channel 5 as the broadcaster of highlights of English cricket.
    • 20 August – The BBC shows live cricket for the first time in more than 21 years.[42]
    • 26 September - The BBC shows live coverage of a women's international match for the first time since the 1993 World Cup final.[43]
  • 2021
    • 5 February –
      • The first live coverage of a test match on terrestrial television for more than 15 years is broadcast on Channel 4 when the channel begins showing England’s test series against India.[44] However Channel 4's coverage does not include the one-day and T20 international matches as these are shown on Sky Sports.[45]
      • BT Sport secures the rights to all international and domestic cricket played in the West Indies and New Zealand for the next two years. This includes England's tour to the West Indies in 2022.[46] Sky Sports had been the previous holder of these rights.
    • 2 March – FreeSports shows test cricket for the first time when it starts showing all tests, ODIs and T20 fixtures involving Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.[47] This builds on the channel's cricket coverage which consisted of T10 and T20 events.
    • 21 July - 23 August – The inaugural 2021 season of The Hundred takes place. Games are shown live on Sky Sports, which rebrands Sky Sports Cricket to Sky Sports The Hundred for the duration of the tournament, and on the BBC.
  • 2022
    • 13 November – Channel 4 shows live coverage of the final of the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup in which England plays Pakistan.[48] The rest of the tournament had been shown by Sky Sports.
  • 2023
    • 10 January – Sky Sports begins showing South Africa’s new T20 cricket league.[49]
    • 29 March - 28 May – DAZN and Sky Sports share coverage of the 2023 Indian Premier League.
    • 1 July – For the first time since 1963, a Women's Ashes game is broadcast live on terrestrial television when BBC Two shows a T20 international match between the two countries.[50]
    • 30 August - 16 September – TNT Sports shows the Asia Cup. This is the first time that the event has been broadcast in the UK.
    • 5 October - 19 November – Channel 5 is the highlights broadcaster of the 2023 Cricket World Cup. Sky, once again, broadcasts the live coverage of the tournament[51] with the final also shown live on Channel 5.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ advert placed by ABC Television (UK) in the Coventry Evening Telegraph, page 2, 27 April 1956
  2. ^ "BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 20 July 1963. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  3. ^ "BBC Programme Index BBC Television 7 September 1963". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  4. ^ "BBC Two England – 2 May 1965 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  5. ^ Daily Mirror TV listings, page 14, 29 July 1968, and page 14, 30 July 1968
  6. ^ "Weekend Broadcasting", The Times page 14, 7 September 1968
  7. ^ "Enraged cricket fans bombard ITV", Sunday Mirror page 1, 8 September 1968
  8. ^ "BBC Two England – 27 April 1969 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  9. ^ "BBC One London – 7 June 1975 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  10. ^ "BBC One London – 21 June 1975 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  11. ^ "BBC One London – 9 June 1979 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  12. ^ "BBC Two England – 17 May 1981 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  13. ^ Channel Nine scores big hit, Daily Telegraph, 7 Jan 1983 (via newspapers.com)
  14. ^ BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 9 June 1983
  15. ^ "BBC Two England – 25 June 1983 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  16. ^ "Channel 4 to show England in India". BBC Sport.
  17. ^ "Briefing", The Times page 31, 8 July 1987
  18. ^ "Television and radio", The Times page 23, 16 July 1987
  19. ^ "BBC One London – 9 October 1987 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  20. ^ "ITV secures Kiwi tour from indifferent BBC" by Marcus Williams, The Times page 41, 21 January 1988
  21. ^ Daily Mirror TV listings, page 24, 12 February 1988
  22. ^ Nicholson, Raf (June 2017). "And the World Cup goes to… England!". The Cricket Monthly. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  23. ^ "Variations", The Times, 2 September 1995
  24. ^ A cricket coup for UK cable Variety, 2 March 1994
  25. ^ Sky Sports celebrates 25 years of broadcasting women’s cricket
  26. ^ a b "Channel 4 wins rights to home Tests". BBC News. BBC. 16 October 1998.
  27. ^ BSkyB lands England Test coverage BBC Sport, 15 December 2004
  28. ^ House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee report "Broadcasting Rights for Cricket", 24 January 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  29. ^ "Setanta snaffles UK rights to Indian Premier League cricket". The Guardian. 25 February 2008.
  30. ^ Sweney, Mark (4 March 2010). "ITV buys IPL cricket rights". The Guardian.
  31. ^ Sweney, Mark (17 November 2010). "ITV to air nightly Ashes highlights show". The Guardian.
  32. ^ "ESPN grabs Caribbean T20 cricket rights". Digital Spy. 22 July 2010.
  33. ^ "The Ashes 2013: Sky Sports dedicates channel to the Ashes". Sky Sports. 13 June 2013.
  34. ^ a b Deans, Jason (17 February 2014). "BSkyB wins UK rights to IPL Twenty20 live cricket coverage". The Guardian.
  35. ^ "ITV scores cricket World Cup highlights". The Guardian. 27 January 2015.
  36. ^ "BT Sport has secured UK TV rights to Ashes in Australia". The Guardian. 23 August 2015.
  37. ^ Sweney, Mark (27 June 2017). "Sky Sports to replace numbered channels and slash prices in revamp". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  38. ^ "Sky Sports to broadcast live Kia Women's Super League cricket". Sky Sports. 3 August 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  39. ^ "ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: TV Guide". sportonthebox.com. 27 May 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  40. ^ "Thursday 11 July: Sky & Channel 4 to share Cricket World Cup Final". sportonthebox.com. 11 July 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  41. ^ "Live cricket returns to BBC TV". BBC Sport.
  42. ^ "BBC broadcasts live cricket for the first time in 21 years and break viewership records". 1 September 2020.
  43. ^ "England v West Indies: Five T20s confirmed for September, with one on BBC TV". BBC Sport. 25 August 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  44. ^ "'A long 16-year wait': Channel 4 confirms India v England Test TV rights". The Guardian. 3 February 2021.
  45. ^ India v England: T20I & ODI series live on Sky Sports
  46. ^ "BT Sport to air England cricket from West Indies and NZ". 5 February 2021.
  47. ^ "Cricket on FreeSports". FreeSports. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  48. ^ "Sky & Channel 4 strike deal to make England's ICC Men's T20 World Cup Final available to all the nation".
  49. ^ Sky Sports announces new rights deal with SA20 Cricket League
  50. ^ Agarwal, Naman (21 June 2023). "Women's Ashes 2023, Where To Watch Live: TV Channels, Live Streaming And Radio Broadcast For Women's Ashes". Wisden. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  51. ^ Channel 5 partners with Sky for Cricket World Cup highlights
  52. ^ TNT Sports succeeds in last minute cricket deal
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