Sky Sports Cricket Coverage 2016
Neil_Harris
Posts: 1,822 Forum Member
✭✭✭
The county fixtures have been released for the 2016 season
Key Dates
Sunday April 10 - First round of county championship matches
Friday May 20 - T20 Blast begins
Sunday June 5 - One Day Cup Begins (until Wednesday 15th June)
Friday July 29 - T20 group stages end
Sunday July 24 - One Day Cup Begins again (Until Tuesday 2nd August)
Monday August 8 - Thursday August 11 - T20 Q Finals
Wednesday August 17 - Thursday August 18 - One day cup quarter finals
Saturday August 20 - T20 Finals Day
Sunday August 28 & August 29 - One day cup Semi finals
Saturday September 17 - One Day Cup final
Tuesday September 20 - Friday September 23 - Final Round of county championship matches
England
Sri Lanka Test Series (Tests begin 19th May, 27th May, 9th June)
Sri Lanka ODI Series (June 21st, 24th, 26th, 29th, July 2nd)
Sri Lanka T20 (July 5th)
Pakistan Test Series (Tests begin July 14th, July 22nd, 3rd August, 11th August)
Pakistan ODI Series (August 24th, 27th, 30th, September 1st, 4th)
Pakistan T20 (September 7th)
Other
ICC World T20 - 11th March - 3rd April
IPL - TBC
Key Dates
Sunday April 10 - First round of county championship matches
Friday May 20 - T20 Blast begins
Sunday June 5 - One Day Cup Begins (until Wednesday 15th June)
Friday July 29 - T20 group stages end
Sunday July 24 - One Day Cup Begins again (Until Tuesday 2nd August)
Monday August 8 - Thursday August 11 - T20 Q Finals
Wednesday August 17 - Thursday August 18 - One day cup quarter finals
Saturday August 20 - T20 Finals Day
Sunday August 28 & August 29 - One day cup Semi finals
Saturday September 17 - One Day Cup final
Tuesday September 20 - Friday September 23 - Final Round of county championship matches
England
Sri Lanka Test Series (Tests begin 19th May, 27th May, 9th June)
Sri Lanka ODI Series (June 21st, 24th, 26th, 29th, July 2nd)
Sri Lanka T20 (July 5th)
Pakistan Test Series (Tests begin July 14th, July 22nd, 3rd August, 11th August)
Pakistan ODI Series (August 24th, 27th, 30th, September 1st, 4th)
Pakistan T20 (September 7th)
Other
ICC World T20 - 11th March - 3rd April
IPL - TBC
0
Comments
If there's no international clash Sky will probably show it - great for us oop north but probably a huge yawn for anyone else (which is why when Granada/Yorkshire/Tyne Tees used to cover it partially, very little was seen elsewhere!).
But TBH Sky don't seem at all interested in the county championship and it's a pity. Could another company (say BT??) simply buy the rights off Sky if they wanted to show the CC themselves - in theory anyway?
No is the answer because why would BT buy something which gets very limited viewers on Sky and is shown daytime ? By your own admission most outside of Yorks and Lancs watch the Roses match so what makes you think a number would watch it on BT ?
Also, and this is the very important bit, the counties get a shareout from the Sky money to the ECB. So why would Sky let those same counties be shown on a rival channel ?
Perhaps if the CC started day/night pink-ball cricket there may be greater interest in the evening when more would ba available to watch. I really hope if D/N CC cricket starts TV companies at least try.
But now for county fans who want to watch the game alongside the BBC commentary the trial of one-camera streaming might continue (even expand?) but, again, that can't be done when Sky are showing other games at the same time due to rights. The coverage would be insufficient for the fan used to 20-odd cameras, but probably absolutely fine for those of us diehards!
Sky have the rights to the CC which they rarely show - due to expense and interest and that many games are on during Tests - and that also stops other providers showing the games if they wanted to. The ECB appear to get money for the games/rights even though they are not being shown...seems easy money to me!
Wonder if there are any other examples where TV companies have the rights to something but rarely use them?
Will have to take your word on the popularity of web based county games, I haven't seen the stats. Can you post them please ?
County day/night matches are a non starter as more grounds don't have floodlights than do. Certainly most second grounds don't. I know Scarborough doesn't.
Sorry, much as I'd like to see the stats myself I can't find any - I'd like to know myself! I just go off (maybe incorrectly) that the BBC commentaries began as an experiment and the fact that they are still going and continuing must mean something...especially as the BBC are looking to cut and cut.
The surprising thing to me is these commentaries are web-only in the main, I could understand FM or MW commentaries being well listened too - even if it's just people having it on in the background as pleasant chatter! Most of us still in the wi-fi dark ages can't even get the web commentary at the game
Does anybody have the actual figures? I know for a fact that Yorkshire>:( (sorry to swear) are the most listened-to county. Well, that's what Cally told me.....
As for lights, just a few years ago no county had floodlighting, and now it's the vast majority, and the ones I've seen are certainly good enough for a pink ball. If both clubs involved agree to play D/N CC games I can't see a problem. Is there a disadvantage to the clubs not having lights?
One solution mentioned to me r/e TV coverage of the CC is something I hadn't thought of.
Sky Sports News have reporters + cameras at a couple of grounds when the CC is being played. They give inserts into the news programmes.
Thus the camera is recording the whole game - every ball - and presumably sending the pictures back to the studios for editing (wickets, etc).
So there is a live camera and a live feed at at least one ground most rounds.....could Sky not put that live feed onto an interactive channel even though it's just one static camera? That way CC fans get to see the action, Sky couldn't be moaned at for bed-blocking the rights, it costs Sky very little extra as everything's already in place, and we can see what kind of demand there is?
The ECB could even stream that feed themselves as well and charge a sub and share that with Sky.?
Of course there would be no actual commentary, and unless a scorebox is provided viewers would have to have cricinfo handy. Awkward, but not impossible, and many watch Tests on the telly armed with cricinfo on the laptop/mobile?
County game is 29th May, in the middle of the 2nd test.
T20 games on June 3rd & 1st July almost certain to be shown
RLODI cup game on 15th June stands a very good chance too
This is a positive move I feel
This is from 18 months ago, but can only guess they've increased
BBC radio continues local Cricket service
Every County cricket match will be available online from the BBC this season, with 5 live sports extra providing additional coverage, starting today.
The BBC started offering online ball-by-ball commentary on every match of every county game in 2013, after the coverage deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board grew.
Commentary on county cricket has been part of BBC Local Radio sports output since it was established in the 1970s. Ball-by-ball commentary started a decade ago, firstly on Surrey and then Middlesex. Over the last 10 years the number of counties increased to include eight in total including Warwickshire, Yorkshire and Essex.
Charles Runcie, head of sport for BBC English Regions, said: “We had a great reaction to our coverage last season, with nearly 700,000 hits and people from all over the world following the county games with us.
“It’s something the BBC is proud to do, together with our comprehensive text, statistics and analysis.
“Our commentators are all looking forward to bringing fans another exciting summer.”
As ever, coverage will also be provided online with regularly updated scorecards for every game as well as on BBC local radio stations.
We are talking watching the game online not just listening. Is above just those hits online for listening ? They will only be able to provide hits too I guess rather than number of viewers
That's for listening (thanks for the info by the way!) - it's interesting that they can count the hits and know exactly who is listening and where (plenty from abroad it seems) so they know their audience. If they relied soley on BARB (is that correct? RAJAR??) figures they might find the audience % is zero based on people keeping a log (that's what they do??)!
That's one plus for getting the games streamed live, you know exactly who is watching. The webcam at Greater Old Trafford is very well used by Lanky fans - wish I knew exactly how many hits - it's static and only updates every minute or so but it's invaluable when it's raining....as soon as we see the covers being pulled off many of us start to head down. Just read the Lancashire forum and see how many times our webcam is mentioned!
Here it is, in the dark right now and slightly lopsided (Click on to enlarge) http://weatherstation.lccc.co.uk/ best thing at Greater Old Trafford since we found out Harry Pilling could get through the scoreboard window to fetch a ball
Just think of the audience if it could stream the games! Certainly in my county I'm sure there would be a strong appetite for paid-for streams; if that were to happen I reckon it would be us or them on t'other side first to experiment as you have a virtually guaranteed audience. Could also improve membership if those streams were free to members.
One other thought - would it help the struggling counties if their membership allowed them some kind of benefit - maybe 50% odd a Sky Sports sub in the summer? = more members for the county (more cash) and more viewers for Sky? If counties go under then the snowball effect might start - fewer counties, fewer professionals, may start to weaken the test (and 20/20) teams as we have a lower base to choose from?
That is hits not number of people. If you log on 7 times a day to listen that is 7 hits. So 700,000 hits over the season could be 250,000 people who listened.
RAJAR is the way radio audience figures are measured and it is down to people putting a tick in a RAJAR diary as to what they listened to and when. So the same as every other radio show.
It could be, but generally when companies quote "hits" they normally reference unique visits. It means more.
That's true, doesn't really show how many have logged in once and listened all day, or how many dip in and out - so it is misleading.
But I know that number of hits affects advertising (not that these streams are commercial) regardless of how long they stay. If a video has a million hits on Youtube - wouldn't that affect how much the ad space before it costs? Many watching the vid might not stay till the end.
I suppose dipping in and out would be common eg. workers having their break and getting twn minutes of Somerset v Kent then logging off and back to work? If the cricket was commercial, you could insert an ad (just like youtube) before the commentary - think that's technically possible? Meaning Counties could run their own commentary without the BBC at a profit?
If it is unique visits that's possibly more helpful than hits, but against that someone like me might tune in and out 10 times a day - 1 unique visit but maybe accessing 3 hours of commentary put together. Think number of listener hours might be more helpful...anyone?
Also ECB pays BBC to provide coverage just like they pay to provide printed coverage to newspapers, well that the impression I got from cricinfo article.
I reckon in the next tv deal county cricket will be web based anyway apart from the games Sky/bt show live.
they can't do it now because of legal issues, some of the bigger counties are actually keen for it, notts had a day play shown live last year.
Doubt it. You keep extolling the virtues of these one camera streams, but you've yet to convince me it is anything other than a dreadful way of watching cricket. You just can't cover cricket live with one camera - the field is too big and the ball travels too fast to be able to keep up.
That and interest. Sky have been showing county cricket for 25 years. If there was any interest from viewers in watching any more than one or two County Championship matches a season, they'd have latched on to it by now. 3/4 of a typical CC game are during weekday working hours, which probably helps with gaining radio listeners (easy to do at work) but does the exact opposite for actual viewers.
Spot on
Last years tour of West Indies, combined with IPL meant they couldn't do an early season one.
At the end of the season, they show a meaningful game, viewers can see it means something, than just a random mid season one.
I feel the BBC do a good job
Tell you what, how's about allowing those of us who want to watch one-camera streaming watch? If you think it's a "dreadful way of watching cricket" then simply don't view the streams!
When you go to a game that's all you get, a two-pairs-of-eyes stream
It must have been decided already as there are random 1 day games in the fixture list which are out of sync with the rest !!!
Sky will make sure there is a tv cricket match on every day of some description !!!
Oh no(!) What bastards (!)