Amazon Prime Video has secured the World Cup broadcasting rights for the Australian territory. The International Cricket Council (ICC) finalised the deal with the streaming giant approximately two weeks after Pat Cummins' team lifted the World Cup in Ahmedabad on November 19.

With this agreement, Australians can access their country's defense of the World Cup only digitally, as opposed to traditional linear channels, during the tournament in Southern Africa (South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia) four years later, in 2027.

Sources connected to the arrangement have confirmed the deal to Cricbuzz. In addition to the Men's World Cup, Amazon also gains broadcasting rights for the Women's World Cup, Twenty20 World Cups, Champions Trophy, Under-19 World Cup (commencing in South Africa next month), and the solitary World Test Championship match (Final).

The deal runs for four years, till 2027, and the first major event of the rights package is Twenty20 World Cup in June 2024, in the Caribbean and the US. The Age first reported this development on Monday morning.

Given the long broadcast history for cricket in Australia, a traditional television sports outlet like Channel 9, Fox or even Seven have not managed to bag the rights. Fox and Seven jointly hold the Cricket Australia rights.

Given that there is no Australian law compelling broadcasters to share content in the public interest with any free-to-air channels, Amazon Prime is not obligated to distribute the matches to any national channels. Consequently, the public will need a subscription to watch these global games.

"The rights deal represents a major shift in the broadcasting landscape, as it is the most significant sports deal ever to go to a streaming service without an attached free-to-air partner," the Age report said, highlighting a point that there is no provision for the game to be shown on free-to-air television. This provision apparently only applies to matches held in Australia and New Zealand, and during the current four-year rights cycle, no ICC event has been scheduled to take place in the country. The next ICC event in Australia and New Zealand is in 2028, when they host the T20 World Cup.

With this signing, ICC has sold the rights in all major territories for its global games with only the Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh regions remaining uncovered.

Later on Monday, the ICC and Amazon Prime Video confirmed the deal. "The deal follows the success of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023, which broke a number of records culminating in Australia lifting the trophy. The biggest Cricket World Cup ever set new records for in-stadium attendance and broadcast viewership, whilst becoming the most digitally-engaged event to date, showcasing that the appetite and demand for World Cup cricket is bigger than ever.

"The new partnership, which begins in January 2024, will give cricket fans across Australia exclusive access to all matches in every tournament of elite ICC competitions in all cricket formats, at no extra cost to a Prime membership," the ICC said in a statement.