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Poor Show Channel 4

jf2001

Cricket Web Staff Member
What did other people think of Channel 4's highlights?? For those that work, it is the chance to catch up on events in that precious 30 minute slot. However, once you get past Mark Nicholas's maddening commentary and window dressing from the cameras, there was actually only about 15 mins or less of cricket (also a break halfway through)

I think Channel 4 do a good job covering the cricket but I would say they should concentrate on the crickert and not too much on the aesthetics of it all.

What do people think of Channel 4's coverage?? Complaints/Praise??

I thought Tresco batted well and his ability to leave the ball with decent judgement stood him in good stead. A decent 50 in seamer-friendly conditions is a start I'm sure he'll be happy with.
John
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
It could have been worse, they could have ended the coverage at 6.00 to go to some stupid crappy game show.

Oh, that's right they did :!(
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
Quite luckly play actually finished a few minutes after, but I was not amused with the way that they said "that's it, bye" and went off without any prior warning...
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
marc71178 said:
I can see we're going to miss quite a bit today if they do that...
You know, as if the entire winter schedual then all the ODIs this summer weren't enough, Sky has yet again taken the 2nd Test of the summer...just perfect.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
That was always going to happen though as it's part of the contract agreed with C4 a few years ago. Sky get one test and extended highlights on the rest.
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
The worst part of Ch4's coverage is the cutoff at 6pm though, I'm now expected to watch the highlights 1 1/2 hours later in order to see what happened in the time they decided to screen a repeat instead of show the cricket. Last year, if I'm not mistaken, they actually went on after 6...
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
I find it incredible how they go to a repeat of a game show called "your face or mine" in which the audience vote who has the nicer face, instead of a lords test, pretty insulting for the people who take any interest in our summer sport...

Im baffled at the highlights, although i admire channel fours colour and enthusiasm over the BBC's gloom, I cannot help but feel that the more modern BBC would make a better package....

I am fortunate enough to have sky, and their coverage gets a lot of criticism.. While bob willis may not be that great, their commitment to the game and coverage is second to none
 

Rich2001

International Captain
As I was telling Rik, it's not suprising that coverage has sliped as the one and only person that was responsible for bringing cricket to C4 recently left (about a month or so ago) so nobody at the company now fully backs it. Also at one point around the same time as the guy left I read another article that the ECB threatened to take the coverage away from them if they didn't buck their ideas up and reach some certain points (can't remember what they were) and give either another "Free" Channel the rights or offer them to Sky.
 

JAB

Cricket Spectator
am glad to see that C4 are putting the cricket on filmfour this afternoon, so it can be watched continuously without jumps to racing every 20 minutes.
surely C4 could have used filmfour in the same way to show play post 6 o clock on the first two days of the match if they were determined to show their downmarket game show on the main channel
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
JAB said:
am glad to see that C4 are putting the cricket on filmfour this afternoon, so it can be watched continuously without jumps to racing every 20 minutes.
surely C4 could have used filmfour in the same way to show play post 6 o clock on the first two days of the match if they were determined to show their downmarket game show on the main channel
It's not nice in any shape or form, I don't have digital and I keep missing the action to go to Races they pay less to screen than they pay to screen the Tests.
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
At least today they didn't make the mistake of terminating the coverage at 6.00 pm.

There were a number of people really brassed off with C4 yesterday - notably Test Match Special. Apparently, as soon as the tv coverage ended, they turned all their toys off too.

I could just imagine Blowers storming up to the C4 studio and giving the producer a piece of his mind.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
"My dear old thing, don't you know it simply isn't Cricket to stop the public from being able to see the Test. If they have to rely on us, all they'll hear about is Helicopters, Pigeons, London Buses and Cakes"
 

Rich2001

International Captain
Man I couldn't blieve the nerve of the C4 producers :O

They actually had the bottle to go and ask the ECB if they could scrap the TEA break interval to stop the cricket over running (they also asked for play to start at 10:45 rather than 11:00)

Suprising the ECB told them to clear off to the TEA request saying that the cricketer's are human and need food and water and going from lunch to close was not on and to change a tradition they would need the ICC to approve it anyway.
 

Rich2001

International Captain
marc71178 said:
"My dear old thing, don't you know it simply isn't Cricket to stop the public from being able to see the Test. If they have to rely on us, all they'll hear about is Helicopters, Pigeons, London Buses and Cakes"
And that Blowers needs to become a member of the AA and that's not Marc's hero! The guy is always on about Wine.
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
luckyeddie said:
At least today they didn't make the mistake of terminating the coverage at 6.00 pm.

There were a number of people really brassed off with C4 yesterday - notably Test Match Special. Apparently, as soon as the tv coverage ended, they turned all their toys off too.

I could just imagine Blowers storming up to the C4 studio and giving the producer a piece of his mind.
I made a point of leaving at 6 to go and record some stuff with my band, because I thought they would cut off the coverage...
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
Rich2001 said:
And that Blowers needs to become a member of the AA and that's not Marc's hero! The guy is always on about Wine.
When I saw him here in Shrewsbury he didn't mention either cakes or wine...just occasional references to being "smashed" in the non-cricketing sense.
 

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