Cricket fans in Australia can "breathe a sigh of relief with Fox Sports and Nine Entertainment brokering a late deal to broadcast the Twenty20 World Cup in India," according to Max Mason of THE AGE. The tournament starts on Tuesday, meaning the deal "narrowly avoided a blackout which would have seen the tournament not aired on Australia television." Under the terms of the agreement, Fox Sports will air all 35 matches from the Twenty20 World Cup and Nine will broadcast all matches featuring Australia as well as the finals. Fox Sports "will also air all matches" from the women's Twenty20 World Cup. Negotiations "came down to the wire" and were complicated by the fact that the rights holder, Star India, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, wanted to sell the rights not as a separate event but as a package of major Int'l Cricket Council events over the next seven years, which "importantly would have included the 2020 Twenty20 World Cup in Australia." Star "reportedly paid" $1.98B for global rights to ICC events from '15 to '23. Fox Sports CEO Patrick Delany said that the deal "was a great outcome for cricket fans and the sport." Delany: "Today's announcement will ensure Australians get to watch every game of this month's anticipated ICC World Twenty20 live, ad break free and in high definition" (THE AGE, 3/6).
