Amazon's Prime Video wins deal to broadcast all ICC events in Australia for next four years

Melbourne, Dec 4 (IANS) The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced that Amazon’s Prime Video has won the four-year rights deal to broadcast the global cricket tournaments for both men’s and women’s events in the country.

Till now, Foxtel and Kayo had the rights for the ICC events in Australia, including the recent Men’s ODI World Cup, while the Nine Network screened Australia's games and few other games. But under this new deal, there will be no free-to-air matches of ICC tournaments in Australia.

“We are very excited to be entering a new four-year partnership with Prime Video for ICC cricket rights in Australia. The recently concluded Men’s Cricket World Cup has highlighted the interest and passion for ICC Events across the globe, and especially in Australia where cricket fans have enjoyed the recent success of their men’s and women’s teams.”

“We look forward to working with Prime Video Australia to provide an innovative coverage of world class cricket to more fans in Australia,” said ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice.

The partnership will see Prime Video Australia exclusively stream all men’s and women’s events, including the Men’s and Women’s Cricket World Cups, T20 World Cups, Champions Trophy, U19s and the World Test Championship Final.

The deal includes streaming rights in Australia for 448 live games from 2024 to 2027. The new partnership, which begins in January 2024 from the Men’s U19 World Cup in South Africa, will give cricket fans across Australia exclusive access to all matches in every tournament of elite ICC competition in all cricket formats, at no extra cost to a Prime membership.

“Prime Video has worked to create a single destination for audiences to find new movies, live sports, and their favorite TV shows. We are always looking for ways to deliver more value to our customers and live sports is consistently one of their top requests. We are thrilled to be able to offer our customers the live broadcast of the Cricket World Cup included in their Prime membership!”

“The Cricket World Cup is one of the most viewed sporting events in the world; the recently concluded edition was watched by hundreds of millions of people! Over the next four years, Prime members in Australia will be able to watch their favourite cricket teams and players compete for the game’s biggest prize, on demand, on the device of their choice—exclusively on Prime Video,” said Hushidar Kharas, head of Prime Video Australia and New Zealand.

Prime Video also said “The Test” documentary, which covers Australia men’s team travels, will have a third season which would include Australia’s World Test Championship Final triumph and retaining the men's Ashes in England earlier this year.