Test Match Special: BBC renews audio deal with Cricket Australia for away tours until 2026-27
- Published
There were 27.3 million listening requests for Test Match Special on BBC Sounds or the BBC Sport website during the 2023 Ashes
The BBC has renewed its audio deal with Cricket Australia for live coverage of the Ashes down under until 2026-27.
Test Match Special will provide exclusive ball-by-ball commentary for all England men's and women's matches in Australia.
All coverage will be live on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, 5 Live and BBC Sounds.
The next women's Ashes takes place in late 2024 and the men's in 2025-26, while there is a men's white-ball tour of Australia scheduled for late 2026.
There will also be commentary of all Australia men's and women's home internationals and the Big Bash League and Women's Big Bash League, Australia's T20 franchise competition.
In June, BBC Sport agreed an audio rights deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) until 2028 for all home internationals for England's men and women.
The 2023 Ashes saw record-breaking figures for BBC services, with 27.3 million listening requests for Test Match Special on BBC Sounds or the BBC Sport website, a 12.6m increase from the 2019 series.
Nearly 60m people viewed video clips, a 25.2m increase on the 2019 series.
There were also nearly 500m page views on the BBC Sport website and 194m views on social media.