Sky take a hit on Ashes highlights with action set to air on free-to-view channel

There will be cricket highlights of the Ashes on terrestrial TV but the plan is to show them on Sky-owned free-to-air channel Pick TV. (Sky Channel 152)


Sky are waiting until the eve of the series that starts at midnight UK time in Brisbane tomorrow night before finally placing their own one-hour highlights programme presented by Charles Colvile on their sister channel, which is available through the Sky, Freeview, Virgin Media and Freesat platforms.


This follows Sky, who bought both live and highlights rights from Cricket Australia, failing to agree a sub-licence deal with BBC or ITV, who showed the best of the action from the last two Ashes contests Down Under.




Wide open: Viewers of the free-to-air Pick TV will be able to watch highlights of Stuart Broad




On strike: England, with Joe Root, take on Australia with the first Test starting Wednesday night



But Sky’s stipulation that highlights cannot be aired elsewhere until 10pm, when the teams are starting to warm up for the following day’s action, meant there were no takers among the main terrestrial channels for the price asked.


Sky’s free-to-air offering for TV cricket fans comes just a week after they lost their flagship Champions League rights from 2015 to BT Sport.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-2509654/Sky-hit-Ashes-highlights-action-set-air-free-view-channel.html