Kayo Sports launched its Summer of Cricket campaign at Parramatta Town Hall. It is selling the promise of more than 3,000 hours of live cricket coverage this summer, streaming every ball of The Ashes, India’s tour of Australia, and both the BBL and WBBL seasons live, and ad-break free during play.
The launch event saw over 1,000 fans turn out to meet stars including Adam Gilchrist, David Warner, Ravi Shastri, Brett Lee, and Rachael Haynes, as well as current Australian Test captain Pat Cummins.
New experiences
Innovation was a core message during the launch, with two new on-screen technology tools:
• Fox Focus: A real-time player and field-tracking telestrator, allowing for enhanced visual analysis and strategy breakdowns, debuting during the ODI series and The Ashes.
• Fox Playbook: Predictive analytics technology that forecasts player match-ups and ball-by-ball strategies in white-ball cricket, to be used across the India series, BBL and WBBL matches.
It’s not exactly an innovation, but where you’ll see Foxtel push even harder is into content that extends beyond the event days.
“One thing I think we’re very good at, and we’ve developed a really good skill set at, is content during the week,” said Adam Howarth, Director, Content Acquisitions and Sports Partnerships. He told Mediaweek: “Those shows during the week really link everything together, because the cricket schedule can be a little weekend-centric, particularly for the test matches and the international games. So what we do during the week with support programming, magazine-style shows, and of course Fox Sports News on 24-7, really links that live match into the narratives that we’re pushing throughout the course of the week.”
Where innovation meets that weekday coverage is the integration of podcasters Sam Perry and Ian Higgins. They have partnered with Foxtel and will deliver alternate commentary, podcast segments, and on-ground content throughout the summer. Their video podcast The Grade Cricketer will also be available on Kayo.
With Kayo in the mix as a viewing option, gone are the days of that one family member monopolising the TV during summer to watch every moment of the cricket. Howarth makes a compelling case for the broadening of the cricket experience in recent years.
“One thing, again, I think we’ve got very good at, is telling stories and narratives and building up profiles of people, and the athletes within cricket, that drag the rest of the family into wanting to watch. I think we’ve seen a whole bunch of initiatives, and not always on us.
““Our mutual goal with Cricket Australia is to grow the game. The India Test series in the 2024/25 Summer broke audience records across our platforms. Shows like The Test, which ran on Prime Video, was a really good way of building the profiles of cricketers that make other members of your family want to watch them, in the same way Drive To Survive did the same thing for Formula One. So we’re very confident about keeping all families happy this summer, mate.
“While The Test doco series was available on Prime Video, we were able to negotiate replays of the series on Kayo Sports so our subscribers could still enjoy the action. It was a win for us, and a win for Cricket Australia.”
The coverage
This year’s coverage begins with India’s tour, starting with a three-match ODI series from Sunday, October 19, followed by five T20 internationals from October 29. All matches will stream live and exclusively on Kayo Sports and Foxtel, with a Hindi commentary option available on Kayo.
The Ashes follows, returning to Australian soil from November 21 in Perth. Every Test match will stream in 4K, with Isa Guha and Michael Vaughan joining Fox Cricket’s commentary team as England looks to reclaim the Urn for the first time in 10 years.
Also on the schedule is BBL 15 and WBBL 11, with the summer wrapping up in February with the women’s international series against India.
Cricket talent rounding out the Fox Cricket lineup includes Usman Khawaja, Allan Border, Alyssa Healy, Brad Haddin, Michael Hussey, Sarah Jones, Katherine Loughnan and Mel Jones.
“There’s something truly special about an Ashes summer in Australia — the history, the rivalry, the passion from fans across the country is unrivalled,” said Adam Gilchrist. “Add in India’s tour and it’s undoubtedly one of the biggest summers in terms of opposition that we’ve ever had.”
Steve Crawley, Fox Sports Managing Director, added: “This isn’t just another summer of cricket, this is the summer of cricket. You’ve got the top two white ball nations in the world going head-to-head, followed by one of the greatest rivalries in world sport with The Ashes. It simply doesn’t get any bigger, and the Fox Cricket commentary team is ready to deliver it all.”