Ashes 2005 not Free to air

[Beny]

It does not really worry me as I've got Foxtell however it seems that neither Ch 9 or 7 (the two major broadcasters) are willing to take on the Ashes next year.

That mean's that any Aussies that want to watch the big event will either have to get foxtell or go over to England ( ).

Personaly this strikes me as being a total load of garbage.

[Maranello]

hmm not an expert on Aussie broadcast media, so what exactly is wrong with "getting Foxtell" ?

[Mike]

I think Foxtell is a satellite broadcaster so a dish and a set top box (STB) would need to be purchased. Then there is the installation cost. Cost might be out of reach for many. The cost of broadcast rights is prohibitive nowadays so I'm not surprised with the exchange rate difference between the two countries that the commercial stations didn't buy it. Shame, as I think it will have a negative impact on the public interest for the rivalry in the long term. Did the commercial stations broadcast any of the India v Australian series?

[Beny]

Foxtell is either Cable or satalite.


The general go is that all oversees matches (other than the world cup or ashes) have been shown on foxtell and Channel nine brodcasts all of the Home matches.

[Maranello]

That is how it is in England, though here, even some of the home ODIs and the World Cup are on Satellite/Cable.

Hence Beny you guys are no worse off than the rest of the world. Having Sky here has really improved the quality of coverage, and I would much rather have specialised sports broadcasters showing a lot of cricket, than the Beeb showing it in dribs and drabs, with all of three cameras and a scorebook!

Cricket is not a majority sport here, so would be unfair on everyone else if one of the free to air terrestrial channels cleared all its schedules to broadcast nothing but Test matches day after day!

In Pakistan and India, where cricket is a majority sport, that used to happen frequently and no one complained. However, even there, with the hundreds of cable channels available, cricket is now broadcast on specialist sports channels on cable, which are subscribed to by everyone.

[Big Merv]

Well it looks like I wont be watching any cricket this season. Does this put Richie Benaud out of a job? jk
I hope this is not true. Maybe ABC can televise it like they used to. One can only hope, although its highly doubtful.