The 2025/26 Ashes unravelled on and off the field. England surrendered the urn in just 11 days, but for supporters watching back home, the bigger frustration was TNT’s coverage, an experience widely criticised as chaotic and unprofessional.
Persistent technical faults, most notably audio and pictures falling out of sync, repeatedly spoiled key moments, while remote commentary and uneven production values heightened the sense of a broadcast not fit for an event of this scale.
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In August 2025, TNT Sports confirmed a one-year agreement with Cricket Australia to televise all men’s and women’s internationals played in Australia across the 2025/26 season. That package went well beyond the Ashes, also covering the Australia men’s limited overs series against South Africa and India, plus the Australia women’s multi-format series against India.
From Cricket Australia’s perspective, the short duration is telling. The Telegraph reported that CA went to the UK market targeting a long-term arrangement of at least four years, worth around £15 million ($20.1 million) annually. If that was the benchmark, landing only a single-season deal likely fell short of CA’s ambition.
A one-year contract gave TNT flexibility, but it left CA without the longer-term security and forward planning that multi-year rights deals typically provide, both financially and strategically.
Sky Sports remains the UK’s pre-eminent cricket broadcaster through its rights deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board and its ICC rights, but it reportedly showed little interest in bidding for the most recent away Ashes rights. Sky has scaled back coverage of England’s winter tours in recent years, coinciding with TNT growing its cricket rights portfolio. Sky has not broadcast an away Ashes since 2013/14, so its absence from the latest rights cycle was not a surprise.
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By GlobalDataSky clearly prioritises England’s home games and major national team tournaments, including ICC events. It holds a long-term contract with the ECB for England’s home internationals and key domestic competitions. This gives Sky schedule certainty and a reliable subscriber proposition through comprehensive coverage of home cricket.
Sky’s limited appetite to bid aggressively for the latest away Ashes rights also reflects a view that the package was priced above its likely UK return. Its rights strategy remains weighted toward properties where scheduling, audience delivery, and commercial activation are more predictable, alongside proven non-cricket performers such as darts.
An Ashes series in Australia also brings structural challenges for a UK broadcaster because predominantly overnight live windows suppress peak audiences and reduce commercial attractiveness compared with prime-time sport. As a result, the away Ashes ranks lower in Sky’s rights priorities than properties that better align with established viewing patterns and monetisation.
Given England’s consistently poor record in recent away Ashes series, and the especially disappointing nature of the 2025/26 tour, Sky’s decision not to bid appears easier to justify from both a sporting and commercial perspective. When results are one-sided and the contest lacks jeopardy, the series is less compelling for viewers. That reduces audience interest and makes it harder to justify paying a premium rights fee.
This was TNT’s third consecutive away Ashes tour. For the 2025/26 series, it adopted a hybrid production model, combining an on-site presentation team in Australia with a London-based remote commentary operation. This marked a shift from its previous approach, which leaned more heavily on the host broadcaster’s world feed.
The coverage featured an on-site presenter and expert pundits who also contributed to commentary, alongside a lead play-by-play pairing based primarily in the UK. Alastair Eykyn and Rob Hatch led the commentary team. Both are established broadcasters but are better known for rugby and cycling, respectively. Ahead of the series, this appointment drew criticism from viewers, largely due to perceived limited cricket specialism and the decision to base lead commentary in England rather than on location.
Audience reaction intensified after the first day’s coverage. The London-based setup was widely viewed as reducing authenticity and undermining the immediacy expected of a flagship series. Operationally, the remote workflow contributed to limited on-the-ground context and a more fragmented broadcast feel.
In addition, the latency between the live action and the pictures received in London meant commentators’ reactions were, at times, heard fractionally before the corresponding on-screen moment. This blunted tension and diminished the impact of key passages of play, and it persisted as a recurring point of criticism across the tour.
The most high-profile error occurred when the remote commentary team reacted to a replay of a run out as though it were live, incorrectly stating that Ben Stokes had been dismissed. The incident reinforced the perception that the disjointed commentary was a by-product of cost control, with viewers and stakeholders drawing comparisons between lower-cost remote production and the higher editorial cohesion typically delivered by a fully on-site commentary team in Australia.
Looking ahead to the next Ashes series down under in 2029/30, TNT Sports’ future involvement is unclear. On the eve of the first test, TNT revealed it had lost the rights to the Champions League to Paramount+, with Sky Sports picking up the Europa League rights. TNT has also recently lost rights in international rugby union, with ITV reportedly paying for rights to the inaugural Nations Championship.
Warner Bros. Discovery has also been the subject of takeover speculation, with reported interest from Paramount and Skydance, Netflix, and Comcast, the owner of Sky.
The 2025/26 away Ashes illustrated both the premium broadcast value of the property and how fragile that value becomes when execution and strategic alignment falter. Cricket Australia sought multi-year, premium pricing; Sky declined due to overnight scheduling, commercial predictability, and perceived on-field jeopardy; and TNT’s cost-led hybrid production model attracted sustained criticism that damaged audience perception.
With TNT facing wider rights churn and corporate uncertainty, the outlook for 2029/30 remains genuinely open. That uncertainty underlines the core point about the broadcast value of an away Ashes series. It remains a marquee rights asset, but the next UK broadcaster will only pay and commit if the business case, production proposition, and long-term stability all align.
