CMS secures England and Wales Cricket Board mandate to support sale of its broadcasting rights

CMS has been appointed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (“ECB”), the governing body of cricket in England and Wales, to support them in the marketing and sale of the ECB’s broadcasting and other media rights for 2020-2024.

This appointment followed a competitive process last November in which CMS and Olswang partners Chris Watson, Satyen Dhana and David Zeffman combined in the two legacy firms’ first successful joint pitch. The groundbreaking merger between CMS, Nabarro and Olswang, which sees the TMT practice considerably strengthened, completed on 1 May.

The CMS team is being led by media partner and Head of Sport David Zeffman and involves advising ECB on its tender process as well as the various media rights agreements.

Chris Watson, Global Head of TMT, commented:

“We are delighted to be working with the ECB at this exciting time in their development. Critical to our appointment was our ability, as a newly united team, to provide sports, broadcasting, competition and IP specialists all under one roof and each aligned to the ECB’s objectives. This is a very significant appointment for the new firm and clearly demonstrates the strength of our combined offering and expanded ability to offer clients the full spectrum of international converged TMT services.”

Commenting on CMS’ appointment, Tom Harrison, Chief Executive of the ECB said:

“This summer ECB will conduct the sale of media rights for all our competitions, including home-based International matches, the current domestic competitions for both men and women and the New T20 competition.

“It’s critical that the process is right, meets the highest standards of integrity and helps the whole game to get the best outcome. The experience and expertise of CMS will support us in this.”