Seven Network acquires rights for Australia's tour of Sri Lanka

Australia will be touring Sri Lanka for two Tests and as many ODIs. The tour is scheduled to commence with the first Test from January 29. Even as the Test series was nearing, there were no broadcasters interested to buy the rights for the series in Australia. Just 12 days before the commencement of the first Test, Seven Network has stepped in to secure the rights for the entire tour.

It is worth noting that, Australia’s Seven Network broadcasts home Tests, women's internationals, and the Big Bash League in the country. They will now be broadcasting Australia’s tour to the Emerald Isle through their free-to-air channels and the 7plus app.

"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 as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. 

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Foxtel has no running agreement with the Australia team

With this development, this will be the first non-Ashes full overseas men's Test tour which will be shown on free-to-air TV in Australia. The last time such development happened was when Mark Taylor's team played in South Africa back in 1997 and Seven Network held the rights. Other than this, they also broadcast the World Test Championship 2023 final held between Australia and India at The Oval. 

Before Seven, Foxtel had broadcast Australia’s recent tour to Sri Lanka in 2022. They were the giants who held a tight grip on Australia’s tours to India and Pakistan in 1998. Foxtel has not broadcast any series from Sri Lanka which did not involve Australia. Subsequently, they do not hold a long-running agreement with them. They were recently sold to British-based sports streaming platform DAZN and the same could be finalized over the first six months of 2025.