Seven acquires the media rights for Australia’s Sri Lanka series which includes the two Tests in Galle and the pair of ODIs.
Seven Network has stepped in to secure the rights for Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka, just 12 days before the first Test begins.
Since no network had purchased the rights, Australian cricket fans faced the possibility of being thrown into a televised void for the two Test matches and two ODIs.
However, Seven, which covers the Big Bash League, women’s internationals, and home Test matches, will carry the full trip on its free-to-air stations and the 7plus app. Concurrent with the day-night Women’s Ashes Test at the MCG, the first Test in Galle begins on January 29.
“What this summer has shown us is that Australians absolutely love their cricket, and we cannot wait to deliver even more action as Australia takes on Sri Lanka,” Seven’s head of cricket Joel Starcevic said.
For the past thirty years, Australia has been able to see every men’s Test tour. The 1994 Pakistan visit was the last Test to be televised in Australia.
But since Mark Taylor’s squad played in South Africa in 1997, when Seven also owned the rights, this will be the first non-Ashes complete foreign men’s Test tour to be shown on free-to-air TV in Australia. The 2023 World Test Championship final between India and Australia at The Oval will be televised.
Since airing visits of India and Pakistan in 1998, Foxtel has controlled the rights to broadcast Australia’s international matches. In 2022, they televised Australia’s most recent Test series in Sri Lanka.