New Zealand pay-TV heavyweight Sky has snapped up rights to all bilateral international cricket played in the country between the 2026-27 and 2031-32 seasons.
Through a six-year tie-up between Sky NZ and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) announced earlier today, Sky will cover all home games played by the country’s Black Caps (men’s) and White Ferns (women’s) national sides during that cycle.
This deal represents a return to the Sky fold for NZC, with the last deal between the two parties having expired in early 2020. Rights were then held for three years by the Spark Sport service before that network shut down in mid-2023 and rights were transferred to the TVNZ public-service free-to-air broadcaster (which had been showing a slice of games since early 2020).
TVNZ will hold rights for the 2025-26 season, but they will then transfer back to Sky.
This new tie-up covers all home internationals played by the men’s and women’s New Zealand sides, but not the domestic Super Smash Twenty20 club tournaments, which may well stay free to air in the next cycle.
During the 2025-26 home cricket season, New Zealand’s men’s team is currently due to host West Indies for a multi-format series while short tours by Australia and England are also scheduled. The 2026-27 campaign, meanwhile, is at this point expected to feature home series against India and Sri Lanka.
The last deal between Sky and NZC ran between mid-2014 and the start of 2020.
In terms of potential free-to-air coverage during the next cycle, notwithstanding this Sky deal, NZC chief executive Scott Weenink said: “We have an amazing relationship with TVNZ and we’re looking forward to continuing and developing that relationship over the balance of our agreement, and potentially after that in respect of free-to-air T20Is and the Super Smash.”
In terms of other major cricket rights held by Sky, the broadcaster has a deal in place with the International Cricket Council through 2028 (it is currently showing the men’s ICC Champions Trophy through this deal), while it also shows international cricket held in India.
In addition, earlier this month the pay-TV heavyweight snapped up rights to Twenty20 cricket’s Women’s Premier League (WPL) and Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise competitions in India.
Outside of cricket, meanwhile, Sky NZ also holds a range of major rights across sports including rugby, soccer, and golf.
New Zealand won their first game of the ICC Champions Trophy earlier this week, beating hosts Pakistan in Karachi. Sportcal