Black Wednesday: English Home Tests - Now Exclusive to SKY

[SpaceMonkey]

you know the worse thing about this? all the new money raised will probably end up in the pockets of kolpak players

 

[BlackCap_Fan]

"Young girls and boys should be able to see cricket without having to pay for it," Stewart told the Daily Telegraph.

Bam! Couldnt've said it better than Stewart.

 

[superkingdave]

According to five they have 80% terrestial coverage, and freeview boxes start at £30.
Sky & cable are now installed in 50% of households.

Its a difficult decision, i'm not sure.

 

[PY]

Sky & cable are now installed in 50% of households.

Hmm not at all sure where you've got that number from.....(or should I say where the people who you're quoting got it from)

 

[superkingdave]

Hmm not at all sure where you've got that number from.....(or should I say where the people who you're quoting got it from)

Ofcom Second Quarter Report

Here

55% have digital television another 4% have Cable analogue

 

[SpaceMonkey]

its not sky and cable in 50% of households its sky / cable and freeview.
But it all enables you to get channel 5 which is what he meant anyway
The ch4 highlights were pathetic. 30 mins of crap. At unsocialble hours (1am?!?!) and the coverage was rubbish showing weird angles etc. At least with this deal its proper highlights for EVERY day of test cricket. (remember 5 are part owned by sky so will probably get the sky commentators in the highlights package).

 

[PY]

Guess this is a topic which is difficult to discuss properly because people who have Sky now (or can afford it) won't be bothered and it'll probably just make people think that the package they already have is now worth so much more because it has the cricket as well whereas people who don't have it think it's a disgrace because we know we can't afford it.

But who says that the cricket won't become pay-per-view for big matches?

 

[Langeveldt]

The complete slide in English cricket starts here... A television will be burnt, its ashes put in broadcasting house blahdeblah...

Worst day ever...

The saving grace, hopefully will be the banishing of Mark Nicholas, so he can do something he is good at, like being a ponce, or advertising haircare products, and never having to see another of those 30 min highlight packages again...

 

[Langeveldt]

Guess this is a topic which is difficult to discuss properly because people who have Sky now (or can afford it) won't be bothered

Utter tosh, I can watch sky whenever I want, but its terrible for English cricket, its appaling for other people who aren't as lucky as myself, and its a killer blow to the development of the game in general,( and it costs an absolute fortune).. Thats what makes me angry

 

[Neil Pickup]

its not sky and cable in 50% of households its sky / cable and freeview.
But it all enables you to get channel 5 which is what he meant anyway
The ch4 highlights were pathetic. 30 mins of crap. At unsocialble hours (1am?!?!) and the coverage was rubbish showing weird angles etc. At least with this deal its proper highlights for EVERY day of test cricket. (remember 5 are part owned by sky so will probably get the sky commentators in the highlights package).

50% of households may have access to non-terrestrial TV, but the numbers paying for Sky Sports are much, much lower.

 

[PY]

Utter tosh, I can watch sky whenever I want, but its terrible for English cricket, its appaling for other people who aren't as lucky as myself, and its a killer blow to the development of the game in general,( and it costs an absolute fortune).. Thats what makes me angry

Fair enough, well I salute you then.

That private education of yours wasn't all for nothing then.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Will probably write it out (the letter) - I'm not expecting them to change it because of a few people sendng in letters that look mysteriously the same though.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Many sports are exclusive to sky and are doing fine, infact doing better than ever.
45 mins highlights a night on prime time terrestrial is still good enough. The sport needs money to flourish.

No more stupid breaks for horseracing either!
Remember its not forever. They can always choose to go back to Ch4 or whoever wants it in 2009 (although once they get hooked on the money it will be hard to ever go back).
They should use the extra money to fund cricket in schools. Something which hardly happens anymore

 

[Tom Halsey]

They should use the extra money to fund cricket in schools. Something which hardly happens anymore

Considering what prats the ECB are, I find that unlikely.

 

[PY]

Many sports are exclusive to sky and are doing fine, infact doing better than ever.

Except football (which I assume is what you're talking about) had an absolutely massive, passionate across all ages fanbase when it switched across. Cricket doesn't and probably never will have that kind of support to back it up in this country.

 

[Langeveldt]

Fair enough, well I salute you then.

That private education of yours wasn't all for nothing then.

Nope.. It was legendary

 

[Langeveldt]

you know the worse thing about this? all the new money raised will probably end up in the pockets of kolpak players

Hehe, maybe they will sod off back to SA when they realise nobody will care about cricket in a few years time here.. And in a few decades when they are earning peanuts here, the Proteas will be reaping the rewards of the influx of poor, disgruntled English county cricketers..

 

[Jono]

The more I think about this, the more worried I get.

To me, cricket in countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and Australia (maybe more that I am clearly unaware of) will always be dominant as a national sport. However to most of the non-cricket English friends I know, whenever I bring up anything about cricket, they reply saying its not that popular compared to Australia, and that its considered an elitist sport. Now I'm not saying thats true, but I just hear that, and combine that with this situation and it sends off alarm bells. Add to that the extreme popularity of soccer and rugby in England, and there are big problems.

The last thing cricket needs is it sliding to nothing in England.

 

[Langeveldt]

The last thing cricket needs is it sliding to nothing in England.

But why? I know England is a great place to play and watch the game, but now all the power is in places like India, even the ICC are off to Dubai, all the big stadia are in Aussie and on the subcontinent, and this impressive England team will not go on forever..

Im afraid that England's loss may not really be crickets loss..

English cricket may like to think of itself as an improving and popular sport, but it isnt really, especially when you analyse the age groups and characteristics of the people watching.. In many places it is very minority indeed..

 

[Scaly piscine]

Many sports are exclusive to sky and are doing fine, infact doing better than ever.

I can't think of any other sport that is exclusive to sky.

Football for instance you still have FA Cup, Champions League, a few internationals, Euro 2004 etc. and the World Cup.

Cricket will have absolutely nothing live on terrestrial from 2006-2009.