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Ashes on FTA TV??

Josh

International Regular
Any news on whether the Ashes is going to be picked up on Free-to-air TV like the SBS did last time?? Thoughts would be towards One HD considering that's up and running now. 9 won't take it.
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
Pretty sure I saw SBS advertising that they had the Ashes coming up. Interesting, because you'd imagine that they'd have to pay a fair bit to get access to the Sky feed. Especially considering that you'd imagine that Fox has the rights to the Sky feed as well.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
It'll seriously take the piss if Australia can get said Ashes on free-to-air via the same host broadcasters that are only available via subscription in the UK.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Well it happens quite a lot

I used to buzz off watching Wrestlemania for free (well sort of, we had to pay for Sky Sports) whilst my American friends paid $50 for it.

Then Sky got onto it and now charge us £15 :(

Happens with English footy worldwide as well
 

superkingdave

Hall of Fame Member
Its fairly predictable that at the start of the season every year there'll will be the usual bull**** article(s) bemoaning the lack of test cricket on terrestial television. This year is the first year the home Ashes won't be on terrestial, so sure enough i saw one the other day.

Fact is unless a terrestial broadcaster is prepared to offer more than the derisory sums they want to pay the ECB is correct not to give them the rights and if they were forced to do so ( I believe there is a review of the A list events underway) it would be to the detriment of English cricket. IIRC cricket invests a significantly higher amount of its broadcast income in grassroots than other sports. I think the governments target is 5% and the ECB invest 21% (CA invest 8% in grass roots iirc), this would certainly drop if sky weren't bankrolling them.

The question is whether we are going to increase the standard of cricket by giving people the chance to watch cricket on BBC2 in between the racing or by giving people the chance to play cricket. I'd go for the second option. Some journalists seem to live in cloud ****oo land.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Obviously the counter-argument is that kids won't get into cricket because they haven't got Sky, I'm with you, though.

Let's not forget that Channel 4 used to switch over to the racing and things like that. terrestial TV can not and will not dedicate the time to cricket that Sky do, all financial concerns aside.
 

superkingdave

Hall of Fame Member
Obviously the counter-argument is that kids won't get into cricket because they haven't got Sky, I'm with you, though.

Let's not forget that Channel 4 used to switch over to the racing and things like that. terrestial TV can not and will not dedicate the time to cricket that Sky do, all financial concerns aside.
I think that's a poor argument though. Not many Kids will get into cricket by watching test cricket, they will by playing it and learning the game.

If you wanted to get kids into cricket through tv you'd make Twenty20's be put on terrestial tv, because if you are talking about trying to attract new people to cricket, for 99% of those people that's the only format likely to drag them in initially(imo).

IMO, some of the people that raise this issue (not on here i mean) are using the 'kids' issue as cover when really they probably think having sky is not the done thing for people of their class and they shouldn't have to pay for cricket on tv. The same people are probably pissed off at the digital switchover as well.
 
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GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Yeah, you're probably right. At the end of the day I don't see why anyone has a God-given right to anything. I love cricket, so I pay for sky sports (I could live without the footy as I tend to attend the footy matches that I care about), I don't earn all that much, but that's what I want to spend my money on.

I don't want to sound obnoxious about this or anything, but I would wager that a hell of a lot of the people who gripe about how unfair it is have a lot more money to play with than me. And that's fine, and noone is forcing anyone to buy Sky Sports, but if you want to watch cricket then that's what you ened to do, deal with it IMO
 

Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I was dead against the move to Sky at the time because I do believe that cricket should be protected, as we have England rugby and most of England football on terestrial I think cricket is deserving of the same. Plus I am not a huge fan of Sky coverage of anything although it is not terrible by any means. On a personal level it has anoyed me due the the fact that my Dad despite loving cricket still refused to get it (when he could easily afford it). Since then I have had to do without live test cricket on TV because I have been at university, but think I am going to have to try and afford it this summer when I move into a new house. Shame that no one I am going be living with shares my love of any sport let alone cricket.
 
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GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
On a semi-related note, is F1 protected? Because it's always been on terrestrial. If that's protected and cricket isn't then that is a little strange
 

Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
No don't think it can be, group A protected events are:

The Olympic Games
The FIFA World Cup Finals Tournament
The European Football Championship Finals Tournament
The FA Cup Final
The Scottish FA Cup Final (in Scotland)
The Grand National
The Derby
The Wimbledon Tennis Finals
The Rugby League Challenge Cup Final
The Rugby World Cup Final
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
As stated above, I am not at all against test Cricket being on Sky

That being said, it is shocking that the following take precedence over it:


The Grand National
The Derby
The Rugby League Challenge Cup Final
 

superkingdave

Hall of Fame Member
I just can't see how it would be fair to put it back on the list unless the government agreed to give the ECB the difference between what a terrestial channel pay and what the open market price would be, because its a massive amount not just a little bit extra.

Not sure what the relevant laws are etc, but i would imagine it would be interesting if someone challenged this 'list' under european law. Edit- though looking at it there appears to be European legislation to actually support these kind of lists.

Cricket is almost unique in this case that tv income from test cricket is probably the biggest income the ECB get. That the FA cup final is on terrestial tv might lose the FA a bit of income but it is insignificant in the grander scheme of things, the same argument can be made for pretty much all the other things on the list.
 
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