A "big money battle" between Sky and BT is likely to push the broadcasting deal for English cricket past the £1B ($1.3B) mark and "put the BBC in pole position to secure the free-to-air rights" put up for sale by the England & Wales Cricket Board, according to Martha Kelner of the London GUARDIAN. Final offers have to be submitted to Lord’s between 9am and 10am on Wednesday following a month during which the ECB "received presentations by broadcasters bidding for the rights deal" which will run between '20 and '24. The bidding war between Sky and BT "for the bulk of the rights is too close to call and that money will be a major determinant in the outcome of that duel," not least because a £1.3M ($1.7M) annual payment to the 18 counties from the new Twenty20 tournament has to be accounted for, "as well as the initial expense of establishing the competition." The rights have been "split into five packages" and are expected to bring in around £250M ($320M) per year with an announcement on the TV future of the sport expected early next week "at the latest." It is thought the five-strong panel charged with making the decisions recognizes the "value of returning live cricket to the BBC after an 18-year absence." Whatever happens, Sky’s "monopoly" on the ECB’s cricket rights, which it has held since '06, will come to an end. The decision is "seen by many as crucial to the future of the sport." Former BBC Sport Dir Roger Mosey said that the ECB giving Sky exclusivity was "always short-sighted" and he "extolled the benefits of bringing live cricket back to the corporation." He said, "We always said as terrestrial broadcasters that it was a mistake for cricket to put all its eggs into the pay basket. There’s a neatness in exclusivity and a huge amount of money by going with one paid broadcaster but taking live cricket off terrestrial completely always looked like a mistake." The BBC is "expected to face competition for the free-to-air games package from ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5" (GUARDIAN, 6/26).
