Home Ashes to return to free-to-air TV

[Jono]

http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/cri...day-english-home-tests-now-exclusive-sky.html

Some quotes:

"The game badly needs terrestrial coverage" - Brumby

"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." - PY

"Yup; This will quite possibly drive me away from cricket back to football and rugby." - Jamee99

Neil wrote an articled called "Black Wednesday" - http://www.cricketweb.net/articles/EEpFEEAyFyfoRAynTX.shtml

One of his quotes: "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."

A letter to send to MPs was even organised!

 

[Richard]

Oh yeah there's been a hell of a view-change from all sorts of parties. Same way we were all guessing, really, as to what the implications of taking live home Tests off FTA, so we are now guessing what the impact will be of putting it back.

There's no question in my mind that the danger of taking it off was related to short-termism - putting the immediate financial cushion ahead of long-term stability in terms of everything including finance (finance remember is fuelled overwhelmingly by viewership).

I think the best thing to say is that if the ECB had had the foresight not to take it off FTA in 2004 at all then they'd not now have to be facing this reality. I'm glad, however, that we're apparently going to be facing this reality rather than in 30 years' time facing a whole different one which could potentially (and yes, only potentially - as I say no-one can have a hope of knowing for sure) have been catastrophic.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Ha, wow. It's very weird reading stuff I wrote nearly five years ago and now have literally no recollection of.

For the record, I think the goalposts have been moved a fair bit in the intervening half decade since that thread. Back then playing for one's country (or the country of one parents, in a few cases) was probably the best remunerated route for a pro cricketer; living in the post-IPL world as we now do, this is demonstrably no longer the case. Cricketers, in some cases, can earn more in a brief six week sojourn that they can footslogging it around the world and the county scene for the other 46 weeks.

This isn't an anti-IPL rant, I hasten to clarify, just a recognition that it has changed cricket's landscape. Now, if the ECB were to have a reduction in its income because of this, the chances are that its grassroots initiatives would be the first things to have their funding slashed.

Stand by what I said tho; cricket does need terrestrial coverage and it was shocking that channel 5 picked up the highlights package rather than the Beeb or 4. Not to knock 5's coverage tho; they at least put the program on at a decent time (7.15pm IIRC). The BBC gave the World T20 coverage the graveyard spot.

 

[Richard]

For the record, I think the goalposts have been moved a fair bit in the intervening half decade since that thread.

Of course they have - massively so. And who knows how much more they'll be moved in the next 7 years? No-one.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Neil wrote an articled called "Blac...cketweb.net/articles/EEpFEEAyFyfoRAynTX.shtml

One of his quotes: "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."

Yeeurch. This is nearly as bad as Cribb's penchant for throwing stuff in the backyard. What a load of sensationalist hysterical bull****. What a ****. Teenagers shouldn't be allowed opinions on anything. I suggest the voting age gets increased to 21 and everything political I ever suggested pre2007 to be scrubbed from the record.

Ideology and reality are two very different worlds.

 

[Uppercut]

Haha, well.

I wonder how something like Wimbledon would go if it were moved off terrestrial. Tennis fans must flinch at the thought.

 

[Burgey]

The home Ashes have always been on free-to-air, it's only the ones in Northern Hemisphere New Zealand that went to cable wasn't it?

 

[superkingdave]

Ah to think, in that thread i made a comment about how i paid about £38 for a ticket to the 2005 Ashes and Marc passed comment about how expensive that was....how much was it this year?

Well my comments in that thread are what I expected, can't remember ever being anti the move to sky.

 

[marc71178]

Yes, at the time I thought £38 to be expensive (and that wasn't top price IIRC?), yet this year I bought tickets for £55.

Headingley day 4 - great value that!

Guess it's all relative, the £38 was higher compared to previous years for Tests at Old Trafford.

 

[GIMH]

My Edgbaston ticket was £70 and my Headingley ticket £50 this year

Usually pay about £30/40 mind you

 

[Richard]

Yeeurch. This is nearly as bad as Cribb's penchant for throwing stuff in the backyard. What a load of sensationalist hysterical bull****. What a ****. Teenagers shouldn't be allowed opinions on anything. I suggest the voting age gets increased to 21 and everything political I ever suggested pre2007 to be scrubbed from the record.

Ideology and reality are two very different worlds.

I wonder, if home Tests had indeed been re-listed in 2004 and the Sky deal which would have started in 2006 debarred, would people (aside from short-termist county chairmen) now be pining for how wonderful it would have been had it gone through?

I can't help but doubt it. At least, of those who had concern for the game at large rather than merely their own viewing comfort - no-one has ever, once, disputed that Sky would provide a much better service to already-committed followers willing and able to pay the subscription than any FTA broadcaster.

BTW let's emphasise that you may have been sensationalist in that article (let's face it, that's what CW writing was about in those days to some extent - the CW frontpage too now has moved into a new World since then) but the essential point you were making was far from teenaged ideology and in fact backed-up by learned university professors. Sometimes a few years just makes a hell of a lot of difference.