Station's coverage of this winter's England matches in Australia will include Andrew Flintoff live shows
The BBC has added the rights for the upcoming England Ashes tour to Australia to its extensive portfolio of cricket coverage on Radio 5 Live's Test Match Special.
The BBC has struck an exclusive deal to provide ball-by-ball radio coverage of the Ashes tour, which runs from 21 November to 7 January, and has unveiled a series of programmes including Andrew Flintoff's Ashes Roadshows.
"We're very pleased to have added the Ashes in Australia to our existing cricket rights portfolio," said Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport.
The BBC has now all but sewn up cricket radio rights to 2019, following a six-year deal last January for England's international cricket matches, including two home Ashes Test series against Australia and exclusive coverage of all other domestic Test and one-day matches during the period to 2019.
In the build-up to the Ashes clashes the BBC has commissioned a number of special programmes including the Sounds of the Summer, a celebration of vintage cricket commentary with Jonathan Agnew and Henry Blofeld, and five programmes presented by Andrew Flintoff and Mark Chapman looking at famous individuals in Ashes history.
Flintoff's Ashes Roadshows will run ahead of each test and feature a live audience.
Greg James will do an Ashes version of his Not Just Cricket show.
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@guardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Reported by guardian.co.uk 5 hours ago.
The BBC has added the rights for the upcoming England Ashes tour to Australia to its extensive portfolio of cricket coverage on Radio 5 Live's Test Match Special.
The BBC has struck an exclusive deal to provide ball-by-ball radio coverage of the Ashes tour, which runs from 21 November to 7 January, and has unveiled a series of programmes including Andrew Flintoff's Ashes Roadshows.
"We're very pleased to have added the Ashes in Australia to our existing cricket rights portfolio," said Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport.
The BBC has now all but sewn up cricket radio rights to 2019, following a six-year deal last January for England's international cricket matches, including two home Ashes Test series against Australia and exclusive coverage of all other domestic Test and one-day matches during the period to 2019.
In the build-up to the Ashes clashes the BBC has commissioned a number of special programmes including the Sounds of the Summer, a celebration of vintage cricket commentary with Jonathan Agnew and Henry Blofeld, and five programmes presented by Andrew Flintoff and Mark Chapman looking at famous individuals in Ashes history.
Flintoff's Ashes Roadshows will run ahead of each test and feature a live audience.
Greg James will do an Ashes version of his Not Just Cricket show.
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@guardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Reported by guardian.co.uk 5 hours ago.