Should Cricket Be Shown On Terrestrial TV

[harrisb]

With the Ashes and WorldT20 and IPL fast approaching, should all cricket be shown on terrestrial tv.

all we get at the moment, is 45 minutes of highlights from the days play on channel five. and TMS, but that is hardly pleasing to the eye.

I think it is time that sky and setanta were told to get their hands off the beautiful sport and give it to the bbc or itv.

what does everyone else think?
do you think that paying out ?40 a month to watch cricket is justifiable?

i don't

 

[mrtwisties]

Television pays for cricket, so I don't think we'll be seeing any changes.

That said, I'd love to see live streaming over the internet if they could make it commercially viable. Even the broadcasters don't show all of everything, but an internet cricket stream could be all cricket, all matches, all the time.

 

[Skater]

It wouldnt be possible for all cricket to be on terrestrial channels because of money and scheduling. It would cost too much and they wouldnt have the space in the schedules to fit in so much cricket. I dont see anything wrong with going back to the way it was when Sky Sports used to share test cricket with C4 but C4 have financial troubles of their own now. Sky Sports really do a great job so I dont complain too much. There are going to be highlights of the world twenty20 on the BBC this year.

 

[Gilly Fan]

As in E.T 'Phone Home'?

FTA (Free to Air) has most sports here in Australia. Even the IPL. Ahh what a wonderful country I live in.

 

[Skater]

As in E.T 'Phone Home'?

FTA (Free to Air) has most sports here in Australia. Even the IPL. Ahh what a wonderful country I live in.

ET was the Extra Terrestrial! Terrestrial just means the channels you receive through an aerial.

 

[Collingwood50]

Sky Sports really do a great job so I dont complain too much.

WHAT!!! I have to disagree, I think their commentry team, while ammusing is mediocre compared to that of Channel 4 / 5 and TMS (though to be honest what commentary is equal to TMS?) The Sky Coverage goes to commercial break every half a ball, and the cameras seem to focus on the more attractive members of the crowd than the action. I thought the Channel 4 coverage was absolutley world class, and the fact that everybody could watch it free I think contributed to the magic and hype of the series. Unfortunatly my parents refuse to pay for Sky Sports so how are the 'youth of today' is going to be inspired by cricket? Sky wont even let us have highlights from the winter! Cricket on Five is brilliant, but 45 mins for summer tests is a bit short. If Sky's monopoly empire could let us have an hour a day, for every England Match then I suppose I would be contempt.

 

[The_gas]

I think sky sports do a great job, if the cricket was taken away from them then i would consider cancelling my sky package.

 

[Skater]

WHAT!!! I have to disagree, I think their commentry team, while ammusing is mediocre compared to that of Channel 4 / 5 and TMS (though to be honest what commentary is equal to TMS?) The Sky Coverage goes to commercial break every half a ball, and the cameras seem to focus on the more attractive members of the crowd than the action. I thought the Channel 4 coverage was absolutley world class, and the fact that everybody could watch it free I think contributed to the magic and hype of the series. Unfortunatly my parents refuse to pay for Sky Sports so how are the 'youth of today' is going to be inspired by cricket? Sky wont even let us have highlights from the winter! Cricket on Five is brilliant, but 45 mins for summer tests is a bit short. If Sky's monopoly empire could let us have an hour a day, for every England Match then I suppose I would be contempt.

Opinions on commentary teams are subjective. Personally I think they all have great chemistry and have a lot of interesting things to say. Dont give me rubbish about ad breaks either they only have a couple of ads every 2 or 3 overs if there isnt a wicket. C4 had ads as well! In some countries they actually have ad breaks mid over.

 

[Leggie]

BBC doing T20 WC Highlights? Who's guessing they'll be at a ridiculous time such as 02:40 in the morning :

 

[harrisb]

leggie, i agree
colly, same here mate, my parents don't pay for sky, they cancelled it when i started to ask for more channels.
skater, bbc could bid for cricket, if they would have allowed f1 to stay on ITV, they would've had it. but the idiots at the beeb decided to go against their philosophy of FTA sports. and no ads

 

[Skater]

leggie, i agree
colly, same here mate, my parents don't pay for sky, they cancelled it when i started to ask for more channels.
skater, bbc could bid for cricket, if they would have allowed f1 to stay on ITV, they would've had it. but the idiots at the beeb decided to go against their philosophy of FTA sports. and no ads

Even without securing F1 rights they wouldnt have been able to bid as much money as Sky. Not to mention if the cricket wasnt on Sky it wouldnt be HD.

 

[harrisb]

the bbc have a hd channel, and they could provide a much better service

 

[Collingwood50]

the bbc have a hd channel, and they could provide a much better service

Here Here

 

[Skater]

the bbc have a hd channel, and they could provide a much better service

I dont know how they would provide a better service than a network dedicated to sport. I am aware of their HD channel but they would have to go through a lengthy process of appealing to the BBC Trust to extend their hours allowance to broadcast in HD.

 

[harrisb]

when i said a better service, i meant TMS commentary.

also, has anyone seen the amount of f1 coverage compared to itv. if they could do that to cricket it would be great