The Partnership
Pitch was appointed as the ECB’s domestic and international media rights advisor in 2015, to drive increased reach, revenue and relevance for English cricket. In particular, the ECB needed to re-establish cricket’s fan-engagement in the UK, with (at that point) only two in ten children under 12 identifying cricket in their top 10 sports in 2015.
Working Together
Pitch advised that several critical changes needed to be made to connect with cricket’s desired new, modern and diverse audience, including the creation of new assets, a greater balance between pay-TV and free-to-air, and an enhanced digital strategy. Pitch advised the ECB on the creation, lobbying and delivery of a new T20 competition (later to become the Hundred), produced a ground-up valuation of the ECB’s media rights and distribution matrix, and ran the formal tender process that brought every major pay and free broadcaster to bear on that process.
Results
As well as a 180% increase in revenue, the ECB was also able to get 28% of all international and Hundred matches shown on the BBC. Alongside these broadcasting achievements, the ECB launched The Hundred men’s and women’s competitions with equal prize money, as well as being able to invest £100m in its newly created All Star’s junior participation programme. In addition, Pitch was reappointed to advise ECB on its most recently announced extension of its deal with Sky which further secured additional increases in both reach and revenue out to 2028.