PAK vs ENG 2024: Dark clouds loom over television broadcasting rights for bilateral series in Pakistan

England will be touring Pakistan for the red-ball series in October, and the tour has potentially failed to garner the attention of broadcasters. The concern arises over the dying interest of the locals over bilateral series in Pakistan. Moving away just from Pakistan, the ongoing Test series against Bangladesh has not lured Indian broadcasters, as no matches are being telecasted in the cricket-freak country.

According to reports from Cricbuzz, a PCB official revealed that the board quoted a hefty selling price initially, but had to settle for half of it after intense negotiations. Speaking of the broadcasters from the England side, the two UK giants, Sky and TNT Sport, haven't been keen on broadcasting the upcoming bilateral tie.

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PCB anticipated a deal with the local Pakistan broadcasters to broadcast international games played at home from August 2024 to December 2026. The Board was eying a valuation of more than a billion Pakistan rupees, lesser than its reserved price. It then quoted PKR 3.1 billion (USD 11.2 million) before reportedly settling for USD 6-6.5 million.

The broadcasters had leeway in bidding, as the open bid process helped them not splurge more than the pre-agreed quotation. Previously, the companies had to tussle hard to sneak in a bid, unsure of the prescribed number they had agreed on, and ended up spending. A Pakistani media house, ARY, with channels spread across such as A Sports, and Tower Sports, assumed the rights. Moreover, ARY also operates Ten Sports Network.

ICC sells local broadcasters the rights of six global events 

The Champions Trophy is scheduled to be held in February 2025. ICC was able to land a deal with PTV and Tower Sports to broadcast six ICC events in 2024 and 2025. The events to be covered are the 2024 Men's and Women's T20 World Cups, the 2024 Women's Cricket World Cup, the ICC Champions Trophy, the U19 Women's T20 World Cup, and the World Test Championship final in 2025.

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The PCB’s claim of being able to sell the domestic right for double the price of the previous two years' cycles, gets nullified, as the apex international council has managed to overtake those numbers on multiple occasions. ICC’s number in the region stands at USD 25 million, easily better than PCB’s claimed figures.

Speaking of otherwise, the official added that the lack of bilateral series against India and playing them only at ICC events has caused more harm than good. Coming back to the England series, BBC has occupied the radio rights of the three-Test series.