Sky to retain cricket rights until 2013

[madmusician]

Numerous reports have circulated suggesting that this will be announced tomorrow. Daily Mail says that it is ?300m with Five retaining the highlights, whilst Scyld Berry says here:

"But tomorrow the England and Wales Cricket Board are expected to sell the live broadcasting rights to subscription television for another four years, from 2010 to 2014, making it eight years in a row."

"The ECB may announce A Sop: a bit of cricket which from 2010 will be on free-to-air...............But it won't be anything that damages BSkyB's exclusivity and their selling of dishes."

I'll be interested to see which bit is FTA, but very disappointed with this on a personal level. I really wanted the BBC to get the second test series in a summer back with highlights of the rest, because my parents won't get Sky. Hell, if Setanta got it then I'd be fine, because my dad's a BT employee and we have BT Vision.

For the game of cricket as a whole it is a bad decision. I used to be a fanatical fan, now I'm interested far less than I was because I can't watch all the summer's test matches in their entirety. The ECB are very lucky that Setanta were willing to start a bidding war, because it could have been the case that nobody else was interested, and the price could have fallen drastically. As it is, this is a very slippery slope. I'm not as upset as I was 4 years ago, because I've learnt to live without live cricket - it has turned me off the game, however.

We'll see what happens in the coming week, and whether the captaincy decision alters it in any way.

 

[ledzep]

No problems for me because i have sky but i was sad when they stopped channel four from having simply because their commentry was so good. But Sky sports is very good as well so i suppose i can live with it.

 

[Skater]

It would do me good to be a non-television cricket fan. The Sky+ HD box means I can watch a cricket match nearly every day of the summer, and a lot in the winter, most of it in high definition. I do get tired of it all, my interest wains with so many meaningless matches. There is something great about listening to it on the radio. The great voices and you concentrate more - Test Match Special tell me in great detail about moments I would have probably let pass me by on Sky Sports. Then you can get all of the uninteresting periods of the Test matches taken out by the short and sweet Five coverage. It isn't too bad. I loved today, listening to Essex on the radio.

As a matter of interest, Nick, does your dad work at Adastral Park?

 

[Collingwood50]

Rubbish - i can barley afford sky as it is and theres no way i can afford sky sports with all it's HD trimmings

I was really hoping for a lifeline here

Alas

 

[MUFC1987]

Brilliant news. It's great that the rights are staying with Sky as they're the only broadcaster that actually cares about Cricket. The BBC and Channel 4 are just worried about getting a bigger audience, whereas it's always been Sky who have shown all the away tours as well, rather than just the summer ones when everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

 

[Collingwood50]

Brilliant news. It's great that the rights are staying with Sky as they're the only broadcaster that actually cares about Cricket. The BBC and Channel 4 are just worried about getting a bigger audience, whereas it's always been Sky who have shown all the away tours as well, rather than just the summer ones when everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

Are you joking? care about cricket? Sky put endless commercial breaks during live cricket, paste every overlay with sponsers logo's and there commentary is shocking compared to Mark Nicholas, Geoff Boycott and Simon Hughes

Sky care about THERE viewing audiences and nothing else - if they cared about cricket, they would steal it from free to air channels from which young children can get inspired

 

[MUFC1987]

You think I'm joking yet you say how great Mark Nicholas and Simon Hughes are?

Let's get one thing straight here. England play cricket all year round, yet the terrestrial channels don't seem to realise this. Sure you could watch the Ashes in 2005 on C4, but they had no interest in sending a team out to the likes of India and Bangladesh to cover England playing there, so they can go to hell. Sky have the abilities to show cricket from all around the world at the highest standard, they deserve the rights.

Young children getting inspired though? If you want to inspire them get them to join a local cricket club and not only watch International stuff but their local sides. Our local club even lets people come down and watch England on Sky during the day, so there are ways around it.

Also, I'd rather see adbreaks at relevant times rather than C4 turning the cricket off for a few hours to go and watch some horse racing. That's how much they care.

 

[DPRA]

I have sky, and I love the coverage I get out of them. Keep it with Sky!

 

[Themer]

Are you joking? care about cricket? Sky put endless commercial breaks during live cricket, paste every overlay with sponsers logo's and there commentary is shocking compared to Mark Nicholas, Geoff Boycott and Simon Hughes

Sky care about THERE viewing audiences and nothing else - if they cared about cricket, they would steal it from free to air channels from which young children can get inspired

Geoffrey Boycott, Simon Hughes and Mark Nicholas are the worst comentary team out of the 3 main ones. Those being TMS, SKY and 5.
Sky is easily the best they display everthing nicely have good commentators and always have a good laugh. Its a shame some people don't have Sky Sports but they are the best.

 

[Collingwood50]

If sky lowered their prices than i wouldn't have a problem - but last time i checked it was an extra ?20 a month - I only would watch the cricket and the spannish football - does no one else find there prices a little steep

 

[madmusician]

Lee - Yes, he does.

I think that winter tours are probably not justifiable for the terrestrial broadcasters, because the majority of them take place in the middle of the night, and they wouldn't pull in the viewers compared to the amount of money it takes for the rights, logistics etc. I'm a big advocate of cricket on terrestrial telly. Yes, Sky do loads of cricket, and do what they do very well, but for the Ashes 05 effect to happen again (unlikely with the current England results), the whole population needs to see the action as it happens. I do think that Sky deserved a crack at arguably the most popular area of cricket (the summer tests), but surely they could do a simulcast with the BBC or another terrestrial broadcaster. Or how about a dip-in service from the BBC, where they would show part of every day, but Sky would have the live ball-by-ball. It's a shame, because I do believe that Sky do the most for cricket, but should we cater for one company or for the general public?

Just for the record, I was a massive fan of C4 cricket and will just about defend everything they did. When people say that Sky invented this invention etc, the truth is that really it was C4 who did it first. They introduced the Red-Zone, Hawk-Eye, the Snickometer and had the most genuinely innovative coverage. I have seen bits and bobs of Sky's coverage, and all they seem to do in session breaks and the beginning and end of the programme is sit around talking in the studio. C4 would go out about the ground and do things in different ways. Yes, the highlights got a bit silly at the end, but generally their coverage of cricket is the best I have seen.

 

[Themer]

Try Virgin Meda with a package with Sky Sports on they're cheaper I think and have a very good free on demand service. Thats what I have.

 

[Stephen Bailey]

Well done ECB, you bunch of muppets. It was always going to happen though with Giles Clarke at the helm.

 

[Collingwood50]

Try Virgin Meda with a package with Sky Sports on they're cheaper I think and have a very good free on demand service. Thats what I have.

i know - brillaint but i moved and cant get cable anymore

 

[evertonfan]

At the end of the day, as long as someone is giving me live cricket I don't care. Sky are committed to bringing every ball of England's matches live to us and they should be commended for that. Sky have the best commentary team in the world and the dedication they show to televising county matches as well is second to none. Plus, the innovation of Cricket AM is a surprisingly succesful one and what started as a stale and bland show has now devolped into a very entertaining and good to watch breakfast show with a great charisma between the two presenters. Plus, Anita Rani is fit.