Sky TV Secure World Cup '96 Televising Rights (20 Nov 1995)

Date: 20 Nov 1995 22:51:55 GMT

SKY SECURE WORLD CUP TV RIGHTS

Sky have secured the exclusive rights to cover cricket's sixth World Cup, which is being played in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan from February 14 to March 17 next year.

During the four-week tournament, Sky Sports and Sky Sports 2 will broadcast nearly 200 hours of live coverage -- including every match involving England.

The satellite channel have purchased the rights from the CPP-1 cable consortium, who had originally secured the rights as part of the planned cable-exclusive sports channel Sports Wire.

Live coverage of the 1996 Wills Cricket World Cup will commence with England's game against New Zealand in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, February 14, and reaches a climax with the final in Lahore on Sunday, March 13.

Over the 33 days of competition, Sky will show 24 games live in full. Daytime matches will be broadcast from around 0300 GMT with day-night matches scheduled between 0900 and 1700.

There will be at least two hours of extended highlights shown during prime-time schedules on the same evening.

Vic Wakeling, Head of Sport at Sky Television, said: "We have shown every England overseas cricket tour this decade, now we can continue this commitment to our subscribers and the sport with live coverage of our second Cricket World Cup.

"During the four World Cup weeks we also have live coverage of Frank Bruno's first world heavyweight title defence against Mike Tyson, the FA Cup, FA Premier League, US PGA tour golf and rugby union's Courage Clubs Championship and Pilkington Cup."

News that Sky, who covered the 1992 World Cup in Australia, have secured the rights again will come as another blow to sports chiefs of terrestrial television stations.

But neither the BBC nor ITV can compete with Sky in live coverage time for a major event, as was evident during the recent Rugby League World Cup.