UK Cricket TV Rights
Samthefootball
Posts: 4,420 Forum Member
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Does anybody think Live Cricket will ever return to terrestrial tv again on BBC, Channel 4, ITV or Channel 5.
Also the last time the rights were announced did any of those channels bid for live rights
Also the last time the rights were announced did any of those channels bid for live rights
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You should have included the words "Live Free To Air" in the title...:)
For what it's worth, live cricket will not return on a main FTA channel. But it ought to, especially in 2019. That is the year that the World Cup is held in this country and the rights for that tournament (along with a couple other ICC-sanctioned tournaments) are out to tender. Obviously, we all know that this will be behind a satellite broadcaster's paywall, but would said broadcaster sub-licence some live coverage to a FTA channel? Even though the CWC is on the "B" list of protected events (where highlights are to be made available on FTA), it would be ridiculously short-sighted by the rights holder to have their flagship event shorn on live FTA coverage in the host country. Could you imagine FIFA, IOC or IRB have their flagship competition in a country with no live FTA coverage? No, I thought not!
Someone like me would pay handsomely for that (I know the OP suggests "FTA") where I won't pay a penny to Sky because very little of it's coverage is Lancashire.
It's strange that even the smallest curling championships are now fully webcasted (for free) but a large spectator sport is treated so shabbily.
It happens quite alot in many other countries.
we're lucky in the fact we have a protected rights list, its just a shame it was 'edited' because of pressure from media corporations and rights holders.
It should have remained the same and the public considered first, not fat cats and their wallets! (Giles 'Silk Tie' Clarke, im looking at you!!!!!!)
I do hope that one day it returns to FTA TV, most likely is ITV. They did a great job if the IPL and Ashes highlights a few years back. BBC, no chance and Channel 4 doesn't have the budget in all reality. Channel 5, under new leadership of Viacom maybe, but you've more chance of the Pope breakdancing on Britains Got Talent!!
if you really want to see some cricket, why dont everyone get of them bum, and go to the ground to watch some? instead of moaning...
What is the closest Professional County to Norfolk, Cambridgeshire or Cornwall?
With your username you in Coventry? Not to far from Birmingham is it?
How far should people have to travel before they can moan?
At the very end the BBC's coverage was so tired and dated that I think they were almost desperate to get rid and I don't think there is any desire to even try to get it back. Channel 4 revitalised the coverage but SKY had the money and have paid an enormous amount in Cricket terms over the last ten years for exclusivity to the extent that it arguably outweighed the need to provide for a wider audience. Whether or not it proves a wise choice over time remains to be seen. As long as the tv money bankrolls the sport arguably the people don't matter and the need for a terrestrial outlet negated.
What I meant to say was " Could you imagine FIFA, IOC or IRB hosting their flagship competition in a country with no live FTA coverage?"
Agree ITV did a good job with the IPL; they picked up the rights cheaply, following the collapse of previous UK rights broadcaster Setanta, but unfortunately Sky - with money to burn due to the impending loss of the Champions League football - have now blown them out of the water.
The problem for the FTA broadcasters is scheduling; T20 would work, as the matches have a 3-3 and a half hours window, but Test matches and ODI's unlikely. You say "BBC no chance", but something like the World Cup fits their broadcasting model of televising flagship/crown jewel events. But sadly - and it's the same across the sporting spectrum - the satellite broadcasters with their dedicated channels will blow the terrestrials out of the water.
It's pretty obvious that cricket has suffered from not having a presence on FTA, sadly the ECB are more interested in short term profit than doing the right thing for the sport.
FIFA is doing just that in 2022, and the IRB may be in 2019 (assuming the rights holders don't change).
No, the problem for broadcasters is bundling.
If you want the rights to the Cricket World Cup you're forced to buy the World T20 and the Champions Trophy, plus a whole load of Women's cricket, with it.
That instantly makes all of those tournaments look very unattractive to a channel that could justify showing one tournament but not six, and particularly not when three of them are women's tournaments which will rate poorly.
The same is true of county cricket - I'm sure a terrestrial broadcaster would have gone for the T20 Blast championship if it wasn't bundled in a package with three 4-day County games and 16 50-over games.
Good point about the bundling, especially as they're all in the tender document.
By the way, where is the 2019 Rugby World Cup being held? Was not aware the country in question have no live FTA rugby.
Japan.
While there is occasional live rugby on NHK, the Rugby World Cup has always been on the JSport satellite channels. Their current rights run until the end of the 2015 tournament, so there could be a change for 2019.
The ECB proudly proclaimed in 2004 and 2008 that there were 27 separate packages that broadcasters could have bid for - and I assume the model was the same in the 2012 rights round - yet the BBC at the time said that this was not the case. Did they really have 27 packages or is that Mr Clarke spinning a web again? The 27 packages claim was how Clarke came to make his ridiculous comment in 2009 about how the BBC could have spent all their Formula 1 rights money on "two T20 internationals each summer".
Has there ever been a case of a sport going away from FTA then coming back? I certainly can't think of one.
England home Six Nation matches.
First choice FA Cup matches.
Also:
England home WC/EC qualifiers
England away WC/EC qualifiers
(Separate contracts - dates on Pay TV vary - away games sold by overseas FAs at the time).
Carling Cup Final (+ semis + 10 FL games) also returned to FTA for 2009/12 seasons but has gone Pay again.
Community Shield has also bounced back and forth.
I thought the home ones were always FTA? Obviously not.
Did he really say that? If he did, what planet is he on? It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes/a Rocket Scientist/Uncle Tom Cobley (delete as applicable) to work out it was better value for the BBC to pay for 19/20 races a season for F1* rather than 2 cricket matches per summer!
* Obviously, this was back in 2008. How were we to know 2 years hence a change in government would mean to a freeze of the BBC licence fee and rip apart its sports rights portfolio?
Technically not true; they're just part of the rights content, not the whole shooting match. Other Live FA Cup and Five/Six Nations matches were always available for FTA viewers.
And yet, English cricketers in 2005 became household names, something which didn't happen to the cricketers who won the Ashes for the first time in 2009 and 2013.
Not all. I would wager many wouldn't know Simon Jones if he knocked on their front door. I would argue that Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann are more famous than him too. I know what you mean though. but was that purely down to Channel 4 and terrestrial coverage or the fact that England had done something they hadn't done for a long time. It was front page of the nationals, OBE's dished out etc etc.
Sorry don't buy that. If the ECB left Sky it would have a detrimental effect on the game as the money going into it would be drastically slashed. Sky pour so much money into the county game as well as the International scene.
I would love to save a Sky subscription on watching all the sports i love but i am a realist plus, as i stated above, nobody can give the sports the love like Sky can.
I am a huge rugby league fan and Sky show so much care for the game. Not just the live matches but the other weeknight shows too.
I would agree with you on this. Loss after loss against the Aussies then suddenly we managed to win, that is what made them national heroes.
I would only like to see live cricket FTA if they did it properly. In the old days of cricket on BBC with Peter West, Jim Laker, Richie Benaud etc, the coverage was terrible when you look back, we had to put up with shared coverage of tennis and golf. That was mainly down to there only being 3 TV channels, yes kids, we only had 3 TV channels!