BSkyB lands England Test coverage

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Milo, no domestic channel is going to offer wall to wall cricket on a saturday- it just isnt going to happen, and any thoughts other wise are a bit naive. However, you're dead right that highlights should be shown earleier (although there wasnt many at 1am or I would have caught it !) but if you think channel 5 are going to show them any earlier you'll be a bit mistaken. Also forget about any insightful interviews or anything remotley ground breaking.

[flanflinger]

OK, true but the BBC was worse, people seem to forget that before Channel 4, Cricket on Terssestial TV was second to everything on BBC one; Tennis, Racing, Football and the highlights were about twenty minuites long and always at some un-godly hour. Channel 4 occasionally gave time up to racing on the Saturday, but normally this was very short. The highlights during the week were always just after the news at 7.30.

We have never had good terrestial tv coverage. The only good think about SKY is that they do dedicate an entire channel and can give genuine Ball-by-Bal coverage for anyone who wants to watch all day.

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Well anyone who has SKY sports.

[Ernest]

I have asthma nade 20 times worse by smoking when I was younger, so I am sypathetic.

But I have said this many times, the BBC can't afford to bid for the rights to show cricket, they need more revenue.

A result of there being no cricket on terrestial TV, will that such cult hero's like Flintoff will not be seen by the young(like Botham was), and the game will suffer, the superstars like in any game, attract the youger generation into wanting to play the game.

I have cable, but I won't be getting Sky Sports, for two reasons, despite my advancing years, I have a 7 year old daughter, who likes to watch some TV when she comes home from school, I cant momopalise the main TV all the time.

When it was on C4 or the BBC, I could watch it on a portable in another room.

last after the cricket is over, I don't want to be watching Ping Pong and Marbles, or whatever other goodies comes on Sky Sports when there is no cricket.

Really the last, the ECB don't come out that good, and it would be cheaper for us all, if the BBC could get some extra cash.

Goatman can pay in Euros

[flanflinger]

Originally Posted by Richie Benauds Love Child

but if you think channel 5 are going to show them any earlier you'll be a bit mistaken. Also forget about any insightful interviews or anything remotley ground breaking.

They may have actually got channel 5 to committ to showing highlights at a decent time (possibly beacuse there is bu**er all on Five normally)

Originally Posted by David Morgan

"Five will broadcast highlights from 7.15-8.00pm, a time which is the most popular slot for TV viewing for children and a time when an average of 21m people watch television."

[Goatman]

Originally Posted by Ernest

Goatman can pay in Euros

I already pay for the Beeb (in Euros ) as I get it as part of a cable package!

I can't get Sky, or C4 or C5 or any of the rest because my place in rented and I can't make any "structural" changes.

Most people in NL get the same cable package I get. Few have Sky. Many rent, particuarly the young. So most cricketers in NL are in the same boat as me, ex-pat and native alike. This situation is simulated in many other countries like Germany, France, Spain, Denmark.......

Now, the Beeb and Sky and the rest of 'em rightly don't think about this, and it will be secondary for the EWCB (but still material), but air time on the 2 main BBC channels is the only opportunity most Europeans ever get to watch top quality cricket. Is this a good way to promote cricket outside of the UK? No, not really. If the EWCB "can't afford" to take the terrestrial option I for one think that the ICC has a duty to cover the difference.

This is a shortsighted move in the extreme.

[Mike]

I was just wondering whether you guys in Europe could buy yourselves a satellite radio since Talk Sport is available as Pay Radio on Astra 2 North

Astra2 Digital Satellite Radio Band
Talk Sport Radio - 12.324GHz / V

[Goatman]

Originally Posted by Mike

I was just wondering whether you guys in Europe could buy yourselves a satellite radio since Talk Sport is available as Pay Radio on Astra 2 North

Astra2 Digital Satellite Radio Band
Talk Sport Radio - 12.324GHz / V

Would I need to put up a dish? My landlord won't let me. A little "on a stand on the windowsill" jobbie would be OK.

[Mike]

Satellite radios can also be installed in cars but I doubt they need a dish to receive the signal. Check on the internet for suppliers of satellite radios and ask them any relevant questions. Also contact Astra and ask them could you pickup Talk Sport at your location via a satellite radio. I think Astra also supplies BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra.

[Occasional Fan]

I can see I am going against the trend here, perhaps because I am in a location where there is no free-to-air cricket coverage at all, never has been and never will be, but actually I don't see this as a bad thing in the long run. If I were in the UK, I would not be all that happy about giving cash to Sky which would then inevitably be used partly to fund football (which is already overfunded). I'd probably do it though. In the longer term, I would expect Sky to reduce their subscriptions to a negligible or zero level and charge a realistic pay-per-view rate for test matches (different prices for different games, different prices for ODIs, domestics and Twenty20 games). My moderately right wing economic thinking says that the market eventually makes society as a whole happy, with those who want to buy the product doing so when the price is right and those who want to sell it getting their just returns for the supply. Those who want to pay less than a market rate will be unhappy, of course, but their unhappiness is compensated by the happiness of the sellers and other consumers.

It's a shock at the moment, and I don't say I wouldn't grumble if I had just had something taken away which was previously being given to me for nothing. But let's be fair: that is what we are really moaning about here - the fact that we will now have to pay for a product which we value whereas yesterday it was free. This will weed out the freeloaders, not the people who really want to watch the game.

Eventually - say in five or ten years time - there will be no flat rate subscriptions and licence fees for TV: we'll all buy what we want at the price it costs to deliver. My Mum will be happy with EastEnders at about 10 bob a year; I'll be paying a few quid a day for cricket.