2025-06-23Finding the Edge: How Badger & Combes Produces Live-Streamed Coverage of County Cricket for LancsTV
English county cricket might not scream ‘broadcast innovation’ at first glance. But as Will Strauss discovers, at Lancashire County Cricket Club, a quiet revolution is underway. Although an official County Championship was not established until 1890, county cricket has been played in England and Wales since the early 18th century. 1709 in fact.A ‘first-class’ professional competition run by the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board), it is contested by 18 clubs, representing 17 of the historic counties of England and one from Wales. They play each other in four-day-long league matches in the County Championship, and in both 50-overs-per-side ‘One-Day’, and 20-overs-per-side ‘T20’, knockout cups.While steeped in tradition, live county cricket coverage was, until recently, rudimentary at best. For non-broadcast matches, fans had to make do with single-camera streams and basic stats overlays.But things are changing.Lancashire County Cricket Club is among the clubs at the forefront of a transformation. Its official YouTube channel, LancsTV, delivers enhanced multi-camera live output, complete with replays, data, graphics, commentary, expert analysis, and fan engagement.“With digital technology, you don’t necessarily need all the skills like you used to have back in the day. Now you can ask ChatGPT and YouTube and get the answer pretty much straight away!”At the heart of the operation is Badger & Combes, a Manchester-based digital media company responsible for producing live match coverage, highlights, archive content, and more.“Our primary objective is to help Lancashire Cricket navigate the digital growth of their brand, and expose them to an audience that is adaptable and changing,” explains Badger & Combes founder and managing director Colin McKevitt (pictured below, left), who also serves as CIO of LancsTV.“Five years ago, Lancashire Cricket didn’t have a live stream on YouTube for county cricket. So this is new. They would never previously have had to think about broadcast rights and how to manage their brand in a digital space, and a digital growth strategy. They do now.”