Surrey close £60m Oval Invincibles deal with Reliance after eight months
Surrey have finally exchanged contracts with Reliance Industries over the shareholders’ agreement governing their new partnership in the Oval-based Hundred team after almost eight months of negotiations.
The Mumbai Indians owners agreed to pay £60m for 49 per cent of the franchise in February, but talks over the finer details of the deal have been ongoing ever since – and the two parties have yet to agree on a name to replace Oval Invincibles, who have won the last three men’s editions of The Hundred.
Surrey are understood to have extracted a concession from Reliance, which is owned by the super-rich Ambani family, that they will consult their members and conduct brand research before finalising a new team name.
The Indian co-owners are thought to favour MI London, which is likely to win out over Surrey’s preference for MI Oval.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has extended the deadline for contracts to be signed until the middle of October, when the Hundred Board will meet for the second time.
Trent Rockets are the only other franchise yet to sign contracts with their new partners, Todd Boehly’s Cain International. If contracts are not signed before the Board meeting, those franchises will be unable to attend.
BBC in for men’s Rugby World Cup
The BBC has held talks with World Rugby about bidding for live TV rights to the men’s Rugby World Cup after achieving record viewing figures for the women’s tournament.
England’s historic victory over Canada on Saturday attracted a peak audience of 5.8m on BBC1, making it the most-watched rugby match of the year in the UK, and Morning Wire has learned that the corporation is now planning to bid for the next men’s tournament in Australia in 2027.
ITV has held exclusive live rights for the men’s World Cup since 1991 but, buoyed by the BBC’s renewed interest, World Rugby is exploring offering multiple rights packages when the tender process takes place later this year which would enable both broadcasters to buy matches.
ITV and BBC currently share coverage of the men’s Six Nations Championship, while the men’s and women’s football World Cups and European Championships are also split between the two terrestrial broadcasters.
World Rugby has sold the rights to streaming companies in other markets, with Paramount+ and Stan Sport winning the tenders in the United States and Australia respectively, but is believed to be targeting a free-to-air broadcast partner in the UK.
In addition to impressive viewing figures, the BBC also offers greater cross-promotion than ITV with its large reach across radio, digital and social media channels.
Uefa caps streamers’ Champions League rights
Uefa’s plan to sell global rights to the Champions League to a streaming provider such as Amazon or Netflix from 2027 will only apply to one game per round, with the majority of matches still to be sold on a regional basis.
Under a new rights model to feature in a tender to be launched later this season, the first pick in each match round will be offered on a global basis.
Amazon Prime Video currently has first-pick rights in the UK and a more extensive package in Germany, with Uefa hoping to tempt it into a global deal.
The next rights tender from 2027 to 2030 will be the first process to be run by Uefa’s new commercial partner, Relevent Sports, the New York-based agency which replaced long-standing collaborator Team Marketing last year.
Premier League sticks with Summer Series
The Premier League plans to continue taking its Summer Series to the US despite once again incurring losses on the pre-season exhibition event this year.
After losing around £5m on the first Summer Series two years ago the tournament fared better this year, not least due to the presence of Manchester United, whose game against West Ham at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey attracted a capacity crowd of 82,566.
While some clubs have complained about the costs of staging the Summer Series the Premier League still views it as an opportunity for growth, and has pencilled in a return to the USA in 2027, when it will be hoping to benefit from a post-World Cup bounce.
Red Roses hand RFU an Allianz bonus
The Rugby Football Union is set to reap additional financial rewards from its 10-year naming rights deal with Allianz at Twickenham less than 12 months into the £100m contract.
The Red Roses’ Women’s Rugby World Cup win in south west London last weekend is understood to have triggered a bonus payment due to the RFU, earning an immediate payback on the governing body’s £15m annual investment in women’s rugby.
Deadlock over Nations Cup talks
Meetings between the Six Nations and Sanzaar unions at Twickenham over the Nations Cup broke up without agreement being reached, so the new competition is still without a confirmed fixture list and broadcast partners nine months before it is due to launch next June.
The northern and southern hemispheres have been so far unable to agree to a revenue split, with the Six Nations unions understood to be demanding the lion’s share, which has held up progress over developing and marketing a tournament that has been years in the making.
England’s first away games next summer are expected to be against Fiji, South Africa and Argentina before November games against New Zealand, Australia and Japan at Twickenham, which will also host the inaugural final, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Pitch International has won the tender to sell broadcast rights, but this process cannot start until the 12 unions formally exchange contracts.
World Rugby has developed a tier-two competition for emerging nations to run in parallel, which is ready to be confirmed pending the Nations Cup announcement.