Langeveldt
Soutie
Yeah sky are way way superior in my opinion.. Not even in the same ballpark.. (they could do with losing willis though!)SpaceMonkey said:
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Black Wednesday: English Home Tests - Now Exclusive to SKY
- Thread starter PY
- Start date
BoyBrumby
Englishman
At the end of the day (always start on a cliche, it means you can only improve from there!) I think the ECB has some sort of duty to spread the gospel.
Those existing cricket fans (who can afford it) will pay the extra (mine's £34.99 a month I think, but it's DD so can't swear to that), but the floating voters without Sky will be lost to the game.
Those existing cricket fans (who can afford it) will pay the extra (mine's £34.99 a month I think, but it's DD so can't swear to that), but the floating voters without Sky will be lost to the game.
SpaceMonkey
International Debutant
well i can only give praise for sky sports...id be lost without it...worth every penny.
Scaly piscine
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Looks like the ECB have sold the game down the river
lord_of_darkness
Cricket Web XI Moderator
poor Py..
im assuming hes crying a river currently and drowning his sorrows in a bottle of tequila..
"Channel 4 lose English TV rights" breaking news..
im assuming hes crying a river currently and drowning his sorrows in a bottle of tequila..
"Channel 4 lose English TV rights" breaking news..
Scaly piscine
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
CEEFAX:
"Highlights of each day's play in the Test matches will, however, be screened on Five"
"Highlights of each day's play in the Test matches will, however, be screened on Five"
Scaly piscine
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
ECB show themselves to be moralless turds - their verbal agreement to leave home Tests for terrestrial meant nothing obviously.
PY
International Coach
The only word I can fathom for you is prat.Richard Rash said:
I'm a student so how exactly do you propose that I manage to afford it when the debt is already piling up?
I'm just outraged that the ECB had the chance to look to future for enticing kids into the game by keeping the home series free-to-air and available to everyone. I don't know more than 5-6 people who have Sky and I have a lot of sporting-minded friends, it just isn't viable for parents and us to pay for it.
And Reuben, you've got the drink wrong mate, it's not Tequila, it's Vodka.
Merry Christmas everyone, here's to the ECB.
. 
.
PY
International Coach
The genius that is David Morgan:steds said:
"We have made an agreement that will offer the highlights package to a peaktime audience.
"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."
What he fails to realise is that a lot of people in the UK can't even receive Five and of the 21m people watching TV, about 8 of them are watching Channel 5 and that's only 3 people who fell asleep while flicking channels and the other 5 are teenage boys hoping for Channel 5 to live up to their reputation and put porn on at 7 in the evening.
Scaly piscine
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I'm sure Five's highlights can't be any worse than C4's highlights, but I think it's an absolute disgrace that stuff like F1 is protected and shown on terrestrial whereas something like The Ashes is not. It is obvious now that the ECB is just as unpalatable as the ICC.
sir middle stump
School Boy/Girl Captain
I believe it becomes convinient to bundle all the paraphernalia together in a digital scenario. Shouldnt cost a lot more for them to provide those services extra.Arjun said:
This is the last thing the game needs.
Neil Pickup
Cricket Web Moderator
http://www.cricketweb.net/articles/EEpFEEAyFyfoRAynTX.shtml
Wanted: buyer for a soul of a national game - well-worn, slightly scarred by recent moral ambivalence but otherwise in good condition. Will deal with all parties, no questions asked. No need for the best interests of the national game at heart.
Twenty milion pounds is enough to offset the loss of 80% of the UK's last remaining terrestrial cricket coverage, the crown jewels of British summer sport, the home Test series. Forty million viewers left with nothing more than evening highlights on a channel that half the country can't receive in the first place - each person sold off for the price of a single ICC-approved chocolate bar.
Terrestrial TV has lost six summer Test matches, five days' play, eight hours' coverage a day - 240 hours of cricket broadcasting. No longer will schoolchildren be able to stumble upon the national side's progress and be captivated, nor be entranced by a great passage of play, nor cultivate their love for the game as deliveries, overs and sessions meander by, the tactical nuances and moments of inspiration imprinting themselves on their minds.
It's not just the younger fans - the future of the game - that we alienate in the chase of the Murdoch dollar, but the passive or casual supporters who make up the vast majority of the game's supporter base in this country. Very, very few people will value the coverage highly enough to become Sky subscribers - they just won't watch. Cricket is not a game that creates diehard fans in the way that football does, but it immerses itself in the consciousness of the majority.
The greatest moments of British sport have been shared by millions because of terrestrial coverage. The 1966 Football World Cup, the Rugby Union in 2003, Torvill and Dean in Sarajevo '84, The Hockey Gold in Seoul '88, The Dennis Taylor-Steve Davis Snooker Final in '85, Botham's Match at Headingley '81. All hold a special lustre as they were watched by tens of millions, many of whom were hardly fans of the sport but drawn in by the drama and suspense of the occasions.
From the many first-time and casual fans, a small but significant percentage of themselves and their offspring will be captivated. A single moment, an instant of genius - something happens inside that converts an as-yet sporting agnostic to a devout believer. Cricket is drastically narrowing its pyramid at a time when the exploits of Vaughan, Flintoff and Harmison to name but three had begun to widen it once more. For the first time in a generation, the game's stock was rising in playgrounds nationwide.
Now, we are left with twenty million pounds but also with a chasmic hole torn out of the body of a national game barely recovered from intensive care. We may find some extra funding at grass roots level for new kit and facilities, but I'd rather coach twenty kids in a schoolyard with a tennis ball and a litter bin for a wicket, than coach three with a bowling machine.
This is a call to arms for those of us who believe in the greater good of the national game, those of us who have stood in our back gardens and chalked three stumps onto a wall and imagined they were Larwood, Bedser, Trueman, Willis, Gough or Harmison, those of us who have hit their grandad out of the ground for a straight six to win back the Ashes. It's never too late to make a difference.
------
Time for us to start a lot of writing to MPs. This isn't over yet.
Wanted: buyer for a soul of a national game - well-worn, slightly scarred by recent moral ambivalence but otherwise in good condition. Will deal with all parties, no questions asked. No need for the best interests of the national game at heart.
Twenty milion pounds is enough to offset the loss of 80% of the UK's last remaining terrestrial cricket coverage, the crown jewels of British summer sport, the home Test series. Forty million viewers left with nothing more than evening highlights on a channel that half the country can't receive in the first place - each person sold off for the price of a single ICC-approved chocolate bar.
Terrestrial TV has lost six summer Test matches, five days' play, eight hours' coverage a day - 240 hours of cricket broadcasting. No longer will schoolchildren be able to stumble upon the national side's progress and be captivated, nor be entranced by a great passage of play, nor cultivate their love for the game as deliveries, overs and sessions meander by, the tactical nuances and moments of inspiration imprinting themselves on their minds.
It's not just the younger fans - the future of the game - that we alienate in the chase of the Murdoch dollar, but the passive or casual supporters who make up the vast majority of the game's supporter base in this country. Very, very few people will value the coverage highly enough to become Sky subscribers - they just won't watch. Cricket is not a game that creates diehard fans in the way that football does, but it immerses itself in the consciousness of the majority.
The greatest moments of British sport have been shared by millions because of terrestrial coverage. The 1966 Football World Cup, the Rugby Union in 2003, Torvill and Dean in Sarajevo '84, The Hockey Gold in Seoul '88, The Dennis Taylor-Steve Davis Snooker Final in '85, Botham's Match at Headingley '81. All hold a special lustre as they were watched by tens of millions, many of whom were hardly fans of the sport but drawn in by the drama and suspense of the occasions.
From the many first-time and casual fans, a small but significant percentage of themselves and their offspring will be captivated. A single moment, an instant of genius - something happens inside that converts an as-yet sporting agnostic to a devout believer. Cricket is drastically narrowing its pyramid at a time when the exploits of Vaughan, Flintoff and Harmison to name but three had begun to widen it once more. For the first time in a generation, the game's stock was rising in playgrounds nationwide.
Now, we are left with twenty million pounds but also with a chasmic hole torn out of the body of a national game barely recovered from intensive care. We may find some extra funding at grass roots level for new kit and facilities, but I'd rather coach twenty kids in a schoolyard with a tennis ball and a litter bin for a wicket, than coach three with a bowling machine.
This is a call to arms for those of us who believe in the greater good of the national game, those of us who have stood in our back gardens and chalked three stumps onto a wall and imagined they were Larwood, Bedser, Trueman, Willis, Gough or Harmison, those of us who have hit their grandad out of the ground for a straight six to win back the Ashes. It's never too late to make a difference.
------
Time for us to start a lot of writing to MPs. This isn't over yet.
Neil Pickup
Cricket Web Moderator
Attached is the article, rewritten in the form of a letter to send to your local MP.