Minister Willing to Hold Cricket Talks

Sports minister Richard Caborn said today he would be willing to try to broker a deal to keep some live home Test match cricket coverage on free-to-air television.

Mr Caborn said he could try to convene a meeting between Sky, which has the exclusive home Test match rights from next summer, the England and Wales Cricket Board and other broadcasters.

But the minister said he doubted it would be possible to change Sky's exclusive deal, because of the commercial realities of TV sports rights.

Appearing before the Commons culture media and sport select committee of MPs, Mr Caborn was asked whether he would be willing to convene a meeting between Sky and other broadcasters to try to thrash out a compromise on the cricket rights.

"I will do that," he replied. "We are going to study very carefully the evidence presented to this committee. We will be looking at the committee's recommendations and if we can then take things forward, I am more than willing to do that."

However, he expressed doubts about whether it would be possible to alter Sky's exclusive deal with the ECB, which was signed nearly a year ago.

"I'll convene a meeting, if I think a meeting can be convened, but I don't think it can," Mr Caborn said.

He added that he could "get people round a table and bang heads together". But Mr Caborn said consideration had to be given to the fact Sky had paid a premium for exclusive rights, and that other broadcasters could not be forced to put cricket on their channels.

The committee also heard from the ECB chief executive, David Collier, who said that Sky's exclusive deal was worth an extra £20m a year - £80m over the course of the four-year deal.

Mr Collier added that the loss of this Sky money would mean less investment in the England cricket team and the development of the sport at all levels.

The managing director of Sky Sports, Vic Wakeling, told the committee he would be willing to attend a meeting to discuss keeping some live home Test match coverage on free TV.

"We would sit down and consider any sort of proposal to deliver a higher audience," he said.

David Brook, the former Channel 4 head of marketing and now a member of the Keepcricketfreecampaign, urged the committee to recommend that the government seek a compromise to keep home Test matches on free TV.

"We would implore members of the committee to recommend a round table meeting to discuss making the Pakistan Test series (next year) available to other broadcasters, with financial compensation to Sky," Mr Brook said.

"The ECB need to be encouraged to help broker a meeting between Sky (and other broadcasters)."

He added that he thought the BBC, with its licence fee funding, should be the broadcaster that took the live home Test match coverage.

"Back of an envelope calculations might suggest Sky Sports would not lose a single ball of coverage. They would share the main matches," he said.

"We would expect compensation to be paid by the BBC to be a significant sum, but not as significant as Sky Sports might want."