So there we have it, Sky Sport NZ has earlier today just reclaimed the whole home International cricket rights involving the Blackcaps and White Ferns off TVNZ and previously Spark Sport when they last brought the rights back in 2020 but has since been shutdown two years ago.
This next TV rights contract will cover at least the next six years beginning from the 2026-27 to 2031-32 season.
There’s no agreement with the Super Smash T20 Tournament being finalised at this stage since this will be dealt with separately but I guess this will either be streamed on its own by New Zealand Cricket or see another broadcaster like Three or even TVNZ cover this comp elsewhere unless Sky really wants it.
Looks like the return of the famed intro music or even the Tea Party segment may be coming back after all but remember times have changed and so does some of the commentators themselves.
Ian Smith, for example, is no longer employed by Sky after a long run with both cricket commentary and sideline commentating rugby. He could come back since he knows cricket all too well but I guess Sky’s Rugby team going forward seems to be more diverse from a Pasifika and female-led hosting perspective.
It’s very likely that Laura McGoldrick will be around once again and so would Simon Doull and Scott Styris with most of them jumping ship from TVNZ like Katey Martin – just speculating though, it’s still too early.
For now, there’s only more season to enjoy non-stop free of charge on TVNZ since they don’t have the funds to retain on its own and it’s being run by the Government.
They could’ve taken the risk and have most of the stuff go behind a paywall had they retain the rights – it’s a shame their TVNZ + is only free & ad-run at this stage.
It’s also a bit of surprise that Warner Bros NZ wasn’t in the bidding process either where they got their own Max subscription streaming service but then having cut their own news team with Newshub mid last year, they would rather run three as a cost-effective free-to-air network rather than do anything to compete against Sky.
At the end of the day, it seems that Sky is the winner out of this but the battle isn’t over when it comes to the next round Rugby and Netball rights later this year.