The Discovery Channel will "challenge the BBC in bidding to bring live cricket back to free-to-air" TV after the England & Wales Cricket Board launched its broadcast tender process, according to Nick Hoult of the London TELEGRAPH. Discovery, which owns Eurosport, is examining the ECB's tender document and "joined BT Sport, Sky Sports and the BBC as prospective bidders for a five-year rights deal for English cricket" from '20, which the board hopes will be worth more than £1B ($1.29B). The ECB is offering five packages of rights, "one of which is for exclusive digital content on social-media channels in an attempt to tempt Twitter or Facebook to bid." BT Sport and Sky Sports "will fight for the bulk of live rights." BT "set aside a considerable war chest for the cricket rights and will press home to the ECB its access to more than 18 million homes that take its broadband services." Sky has been the sole broadcast-rights holder for English cricket since the '05 Ashes summer and "will fight hard to keep hold of its prize summer content" (TELEGRAPH, 5/12).
