Ashes back on TV

[Gwylan]

After a series that was followed by most people on the radio and the highlights programme, the Ashes test will be broadcast on terrestrial TV in future.

That's great news - my kids, who are quite interested in cricket, will be able to follow top matches on TV for the first time.

Edit: the link
BBC SPORT | Ashes set for free-to-air return

 

[CHAPPERS]

It's a start.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Thank god for that. Should never have been whored off to Sky in the first place.

 

[Mendoza]

When does the Sky deal run out?

It maybe free to air, but not until 2013 or something stupid

 

[Badger]

Would be nice if it was all England's home tests and not just the Ashes which is once every 4 years.

 

[Easy 10]

Won't the EWCB be throwing an eppy though ? Surely they make a KILLING by selling the rights to Sky.

 

[Normal Rob]

When does the Sky deal run out?

It maybe free to air, but not until 2013 or something stupid

Possibly - but it is a move in the right direction.

It was a travesty that the masses could not watch the recent ashes series.

 

[Mendoza]

It was a travesty that the masses could not watch the recent ashes series.

Exactly, look at 2005 series. People who werent that interested were watching it because people were talking about it. It was on T Vwhen you got home from work and people became transfixed with the drama.

It was talked about like Jedward are now, i.e. not just on sports shows, but on radio, daytime tv, prime tv shows, the news, just about everything possible. Everyone had an opnion on it because they could watch it.

The series this year was great but not many people witnessed it, which as you said was a travesty (even though the cricket was no where near as good as 2005, the drama and excitememnt was)

 

[keaton]

Mmm. It appears i'm the only one who's not happy with this news. It's almost certainly going to massively damage County Cricket, and subsequently the Test team. The championship pretty much survives on ECB hand-outs and they'll have far less money now they don't have the Ashes to barter with. As a fan of a county with no ability to make much money when we're succesful and with no chance of expanding to get ODI or test matches at our ground, i'm not over-joyed that we'll be getting even less money

 

[Tooting Gull]

On balance, it has to be better to have the Ashes on terrestrial.

But there is a downside. I do think Sky have covered cricket superbly. You get better coverage of the Tests the BBC used to show, and you get all sorts of matches - international tours and domestic competitions - that the BBC could have shown in the past, but chose not to because a) they didn't want to fork out for relatively cheap rights and b) their other programming commitments.

The problem with all this is that Sky's massive financial commitment and investment depends on having the cherry at the top to make people susbscribe, and without the Ashes a lot of the other cricket we watch on it may go too.

 

[sten_super]

Mmm. It appears i'm the only one who's not happy with this news. It's almost certainly going to massively damage County Cricket, and subsequently the Test team. The championship pretty much survives on ECB hand-outs and they'll have far less money now they don't have the Ashes to barter with. As a fan of a county with no ability to make much money when we're succesful and with no chance of expanding to get ODI or test matches at our ground, i'm not over-joyed that we'll be getting even less money

But counties survived before the sky money came in; it's not as if there's been an appreciable increase in quality since 2003 in the county game, is it?

I accept that it's not great news for the counties, but it's fantastic news for the game of cricket as a whole.

 

[Napper]

Bad news, no one does sport like Sky

 

[Easy 10]

As long as the BBC can dedicate blanket coverage of the Tests. Presumably it'll hop between BBC1 and BBC2, dunno if they'll incorporate BBC3 or 4 ? I guess everyone will be digital by the time it comes round, but a "red button" jobbie would certainly NOT be ideal, being as you can't pause or record.

 

[sten_super]

As long as the BBC can dedicate blanket coverage of the Tests. Presumably it'll hop between BBC1 and BBC2, dunno if they'll incorporate BBC3 or 4 ? I guess everyone will be digital by the time it comes round, but a "red button" jobbie would certainly NOT be ideal, being as you can't pause or record.

I wouldn't be surprised if Sky keep the rights, but broadcast it on Sky Sports News which is on freeview. That way they keep all Test cricket, maintain the advertising revenue but fulfill the terms of this list.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I gather the Sky contract is worth about £300m to the game. That's a big loss to take. I presume you'll get more players wanting to play in series like the IPL if their wages are going to go down as a result of this.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

I gather the Sky contract is worth about £300m to the game. That's a big loss to take. I presume you'll get more players wanting to play in series like the IPL if their wages are going to go down as a result of this.

Of course they wouldn't lose all that money. The BBC or someone else would still need to pay something for the rights. As rightly said above post 2012 the whole country will have digital making it pretty easy for a rival operation aside from BBC, ITV , C4 and five to bid. The competition might actually be pretty fierce and drive the price up.

 

[Gwylan]

As long as the BBC can dedicate blanket coverage of the Tests. Presumably it'll hop between BBC1 and BBC2, dunno if they'll incorporate BBC3 or 4 ? I guess everyone will be digital by the time it comes round, but a "red button" jobbie would certainly NOT be ideal, being as you can't pause or record.

When the BBC lost the rights it didn't have the BBC3 and 4 options - these are both currently unused before 7.00 so one of them would be perfect for cricket.

I don't understand the argument that the loss of Sky money would damage cricket as sten_super pointed out cricket survived for about 150 years before Sky money came along and there'll still be big handouts to the counties from the test revenues, let alone the TV rights (and there'll probably be opportunities to sell of Internet rights too).

There will be some loss of income but not a crippling one but this will be more than offset by the increased interest in the game. I have been a cricket fan since I was 6, my interest fired by the 1963 West Indies series. It was TV that captured by attention first of all and that led me to go to the cricket: would I have pestered my parents to take me to Sussex matches if I'd never seen a game? I don't know the answer, my dad was a fan so I may have got interested anyway. But there will be kids enthused by cricket for the first time by seeing it on TV and that's got to be great for the sport.

 

[sten_super]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jul/15/test-cricket-broadcast-rights-sky

Interesting article about the money that the ECB receive from Sky, and where it goes.

It's an issue that no-one wants to tackle, but fundamentally there are too many first class counties. It's easy enough for me to say as a Warks fan, but there should be no more than ten counties, possibly even eight. Then you will get a higher standard of play, and more intense games, which will be better attended. Only a relatively small number of professional cricketers are good enough to play for their country, and the system should be geared towards improving them and their chances, rather than providing a living to a series of decidedly average journeymen. IMO, like.

 

[mona]

Will the BBC give ball by ball coverage or will it go back to shared slots with horse racing and news bulletins ?
This is well-intentioned but I fear the law of unintended consequences will kick in.

 

[PHCgull]

This has happened as a direct result of The Sun switching sides to back the Tories. It is the govt trying to hurt Murdoch. When Cameron gets in, this will be dropped.