Live English cricket is "set to appear" on British terrestrial TV "for the first time in more than a decade, as part of plans for a domestic tournament that would emulate the hugely successful Indian Premier League," according to Murad Ahmed of the FINANCIAL TIMES. England & Wales Cricket Board CEO Tom Harrison is "confident of gaining formal approval for an eight-team Twenty20 competition at a meeting of the sport's leadership this month." The competition would begin in '20 "after the expiry of Sky's current deal for exclusive broadcast rights to English cricket." Harrison said that he wanted some games to be screened live on free-to-air broadcasters such as the BBC, "even if that meant forsaking money from pay-TV groups such as Sky and BT, which offer a higher price for exclusivity." Harrison added, "We have no ambition to be the richest, most irrelevant sport in this country. Have we been having conversations with free-to-air [channels for the new T20 tournament]? Absolutely ... Am I convinced they will be at the table? Yes." The ECB estimated the new T20 competition will make £30M-£35M ($37.2M-$43.4M) in revenues each year and is "crucial to securing the future of its business." Harrison said that cricket must also realize that televised live sport is a "declining business, as people ditch pay-TV for on-demand services such as Netflix and millennial audiences opt for social media." These trends led Harrison to "explore ways for fans to watch cricket online, with the ECB looking for inspiration from other sports" (FT, 3/18).
