UK production company Whisper Films has agreed a deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to produce online highlights and clips of the latter’s events for the remainder of 2020.
The deal includes all Tests, One Day Internationals and Twenty20 internationals across both men and women’s international teams. The content will be delivered through social-media platforms.
Whisper Films has also confirmed that it has won the contract to produce England international cricket highlights for UK public broadcaster the BBC. The contract includes television highlights for domestic Test matches, ODI matches and T20 international matches from this summer, beginning with the England v West Indies Test match from July 8-12.
While Whisper did not specify the length of the BBC deal, it is believed to run to the end of 2021, with a three-year extension option.
The company’s cricket production team is led by Rob Williams, who has produced multiple International Cricket Council tournaments.
The BBC acquired the cricket highlights rights in 2017 as part of a five year deal with the ECB, running from 2020 to 2024. The rights also comprise non-exclusive live rights to 21 selected national team and domestic matches per year, as well as clips and radio rights.
Whisper recently renewed its Formula 1 production contract in the UK with commercial broadcaster Channel 4. It also produced Channel 4’s coverage of the inaugural 2019 edition of W-Series, the women’s motorsport competition.
John Stephenson
john@cricketinvestor.co.uk
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