ECB signs World Cup TV deal with US broadcaster (5 October 1998)
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has agreed a deal with Kelly Broadcasting Systems (KBS) to provide live radio and TV coverage of next year's Cricket World Cup to North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Guyana
05-Oct-1998
5 October 1998
ECB signs World Cup TV deal with US broadcaster
ECB press release
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has agreed a deal with
Kelly Broadcasting Systems (KBS) to provide live radio and TV
coverage of next year's Cricket World Cup to North America,
Central America, the Caribbean and Guyana.
The American company, which covered the 1996 Cricket World Cup in
India and Pakistan, will offer live coverage of all 42 matches in
the 1999 tournament to satellite and cable subscribers in the US.
It also plans to offer coverage of W est IndiesM-^R matches in
the tournament to free-to-air terrestrial broadcasters in the
Caribbean plus coverage of the Super Six stage, the semi-finals
and the final.
ECB Marketing Director Terry Blake said: "We want to ensure that
next summer's Cricket World Cup is a truly global event. This
deal is good news for cricket fans in North America, Central
America and the Caribbean and means that the cumulative worldwide
TV audience for the event will be close to two billion." KBS
President Michael Kelly said: "Our coverage of the event will be
greater than ever before and we expect the 1999 Cricket World Cup
to be the most watched, broadly distributed World Cup ever."
Sky Sports and the BBC will share TV coverage of the tournament
in this country while similar alliances are agreed between
free-to-air and pay services in Asia (including the Indian
Sub-continent), Africa and Australia.
12 teams will take part in the tournament which starts on May 14
next year with a final at Lord's on June 20. They are:
Australia, Bangladesh, England, Indi a, Kenya, New Zealand,
Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and
Zimbabwe.
Source:: ECB