BBL's breakthrough US broadcast deal

Cricket Australia has signed new television broadcast deals for the United States and Canada, including a breakthrough one-year deal with the NBC Sports Network to show 10 KFC Big Bash League matches.

NBCSN will broadcast a weekly BBL match of the round live and on replay, while all BBL|06 finals will be aired on delay.

With NBCSN part of most basic cable packages in the US, it means the BBL will be available in almost 85 million US households.

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The 10 matches will also be simultaneously available on NBCSports.com and on the NBC Sports app.

CA Executive General Manager of Media, Communications & Marketing Ben Amarfio said it was a "watershed moment" for Australian cricket in the US.

"It is the first time Australian cricket will be available to such a broad mainstream audience and we think that not only will the 10 million-plus sub-continent, Caribbean, UK, South Africa and Australasia diaspora throughout the US be excited about cricket being so easily accessible, but Americans in general will also embrace the Big Bash League.

"The growth of cricket, including the Big Bash League in recent years, has been phenomenal.  We’re very excited to extend the reach of the Big Bash League into the US and Canada markets and look forward to connecting with fans whether it be via broadcast, online or on via mobile devices."

In the USA, CA has also renewed all rights with its longstanding partner Willow for the next five years starting this season, including men’s Tests, ODIs and T20s, women’s international matches and both the BBL and the Women’s Big Bash League.

Cricket fans in the USA who are subscribers of Willow will also be able to live stream matches through cricket.com.au.

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In Canada, CA has forged a deal with new partner Asian Television Network (ATN) for the next five years, as exclusive rights holder of all men’s and women’s international matches, plus the BBL and WBBL. Cricket fans in Canada who are subscribers of ATN will also be able to live stream content at cricket.com.au.

"We’re really thrilled to renew our long standing partnership with Willow and also welcome ATN and NBC Sports Network into the Australian cricket family,” Amarfio said.

"The US and Canada markets are crucial to the growth of the game globally and the appetite and competition to acquire Cricket Australia’s media rights we saw in the US is testament to the growing appeal and outstanding quality of cricket that these markets have experienced. 

"We are fortunate to be partnering with such prominent companies who clearly value the quality of Australian cricket content.

"Our current and new broadcast partners are renowned for delivering world class sports broadcasting and we look forward to them taking the game to more people in innovative ways.  This is very important for us in our efforts to grow the game and was a major consideration in these latest rights deals.

"We’re particularly pleased that all of our women's international and WBBL content will also receive exposure on a global scale through all of the recent renewals we have done in the UK, South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding Northern Africa and RSA), Caribbean, USA and Canada."

NBC Sports and NBCSN President of Programming Jon Miller said he was thrilled to partner with CA to bring cricket to fans in the US.

"The Big Bash League enhances our expansive collection of best-in-class international sports properties."

Willow Chief Executive Vijay Srinivasan said he was delighted to extend the long-standing relationship with CA. 

"Australian cricket is consistently among the finest in the world and has been a mainstay of Willow over the years. 

"We believe there is still enormous headroom for the US cricket audience to grow both on television and digital and we are excited that Australian cricket will be part of our programming through our next five years of growth."