Dentons seals £300m TV rights sale for Cricket Board

Denton Wilde Sapte has marked its tenth year ­advising the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) by acting on the £300m sale of the UK media rights to matches between 2010 and 2013.

BSkyB and Five have retained broadcast rights for English cricket, while Welsh language channel S4C will offer live coverage of Glamorgan County Cricket Club matches.

Sky Sports will continue showing live coverage of home test matches, one-day internationals and international Twenty20 games. It will also be allowed to cover two new domestic Twenty­20 tournaments, while Five has won the right to broadcast highlights of all England’s home test matches.

Dentons partner Adrian Barr-Smith, who led ECB’s team on the bids, said BSkyB and Five’s tenders will allow ECB to make a significant investment back into the sport.

“It was essential that the bidding process allowed flexibility for broadcasters to find packages that suited them, and therefore the invitation to tender offered 35 different packages,” explained Barr-Smith. “The structure of international and domestic cricket is ­currently in a state of flux, which extended both the process and consequential negotiations.”

Barr-Smith’s ;team ­included technology, media and telecoms lawyer Stephen Ridgway and competition senior associate Alex Haffner. BSkyB and Five were advised by in-house ­counsel.