BBC signs county cricket deal for local radio — as it boasts deep coverage of 180 sports clubs in local online services
Every county cricket match will get full commentary treatment on the BBC this year, across local radio and the BBC Sport website.
The BBC has extended its longstanding partnership with the ECB to provide commentary of men’s and women’s domestic cricket for the next four years.
This will include full commentary on every match in the Rothesay County Championship plus the best of the action from the men’s and women’s white ball competitions, the organisation said today.
Commentary will be provided by BBC local radio’s expert pundits and commentators for every one of the 18 Professional Counties alongside summarisers from a mix of current and recent players from the women’s and men’s games.
In 2024 there were almost 30 million listens to BBC Local commentaries and views to the live text pages combined on the BBC for the Rothesay County Championship.
Jason Horton, Director of BBC Local, said: “Our four-year pledge to County Cricket solidifies our passion for local sport. We’re here to keep you informed, entertained, and at the heart of the action — sharing the thrills and tension as we champion your teams together.”
Adam Mountford, Head of Cricket, BBC Sport, added: “Not only will cricket fans be able to follow the best of the action from the men’s and women’s domestic game through BBC Local Radio, but there will also be extensive coverage available across 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds. Our first BBC ball by ball County cricket commentary took place back in 1927 and it’s brilliant that this new deal means we’ll still be broadcasting domestic cricket 100 years later and beyond.”
Details of how much of the commentary will be broadcast on local radio has yet to be confirmed.
The BBC has been under fire internally and externally for the dismantling of truly local radio in the last two years. Many BBC local radio stations now only broadcast from their local areas between 6am and 2pm on weekdays, with syndicated shows shared between neighbouring stations filling the rest of the schedule, before an all-England late night show kicks in at 10pm.
The BBC argues it needed to make the change because fewer people were listening to local radio, a trend which has accelerated in some areas since the switch to less local radio,
At the same time, the BBC revinvested a lot of the money saved in local radio in its local online news operation, claiming covering the same stories as existing local news services wouldn’t be to the detriment of existing publishers.
However, after initally backing the move, regulator Ofcom has now admitted that the BBC’s work in local online news is an additional ‘headwind’ facing publishers alongside platforms like Google and Meta.
The BBC’s press release about the cricket deal, which is probably one of the few areas where it can cover sport without materially competing with existing publishers, also claims the BBC’s online local services provide news, commentary and analysis for over 180 local sports clubs — more than any other provider.
In a sign of its readiness to compete directly with commercial publishers already providing detailed coverage of popular sports, it added: “Sports fans can follow all their favourite local clubs and sports on the BBC with more live team pages, team update articles on BBC Sport, and sport podcasts on the BBC Sounds ‘Local to me’ rail.”
