Sky deal reignites free-to-air debate

News that Sky Sports has extended its broadcast partnership with the ECB until the end of the 2019 season, just as the Big Bash League is drawing huge audiences at home and in the ground, is sure to revive the debate about the virtues of cricket on free-to-air television.

As part of the broadcast deal agreed in 2012, Sky always had the option to extend its exclusive deal to televise English cricket beyond the apparent expiry in 2017 and was always likely to do so. In many ways, English cricket will breathe a sigh of relief.

Sky has been the broadcast partner of the ECB since 2006. In that time, it has pumped unprecedented resources into the game - the current deal is worth around £65m a year - and enabled the ECB to invest in better facilities, better coaching and medical resources and provide a huge increase in funding to grassroots cricket. The company pays handsomely for its exclusivity. It is no coincidence that the ECB has also been able to invest heavily in women's cricket and disability cricket during the Sky era.

Sky has also taken coverage of the game to a new level. It is easily forgotten now but Channel 4's coverage of two Ashes series was interrupted, in all, by 33 hours' worth of horse racing. Channel 4 also persuaded the ECB to start Tests at 10.30am one summer in order not to disrupt the evening scheduling of The Simpsons and Hollyoaks.