BT Sport - Launch of BT Sport Ultimate

When BT won this contract with Cricket Australia in 2015, it was reported that CA offered both pay and FTA packages. BT won both. They offered the FTA side of the deal last year by sub-licensing a few of the Big Bash live games to C5 and showing (unscheduled) Big Bash highlights on BT Showcase. The international highlights had short packages on YouTube.

Only BT and CA know the obligations of the FTA contract, but clearly they will be abiding by that contract. It will be interesting to see how long the free online highlights package will be. If it’s only a few minutes long, then it will be a major step back. But if it’s the customary hour, then all that has changed is the delivery method which I accept is an irritant to many, but it isn’t the sky falling in.

As it is, the timeslot is better than FTA highlights have had since the 2006-7 series. It became the established convention that series that FTA highlights were made available at 10pm. The ability to watch the FTA highlights in ‘prime time’ is an improvement, at least.

I do accept, though, that exposure is less than a major terrestrial channel having the highlights, and BT clearly do want to keep all the footage for themselves. Having said that, the last Ashes series had FTA highlights on Pick, so hardly at the cutting edge, and the one before that had highlights on ITV4, again one for the die-hards.

As for BT’s coverage itself, I thought it was rather good. I like the desk on the outfield for the presentation and both Matt Smith and Ali Mitchell are excellent broadcasters and anchor the whole thing nicely. Ponting and Fleming are also top-notch. I find Swann a bit much and Vaughan can get carried away, too, but hopefully they’ll be reigned in by those around them. Matt Smith kept rolling his eyes when Swann made silly jokes in the post coverage, which I appreciated.

I assumed BT Sport Showcase would show FTA highlights and I thought that was announced when they won the rights but seems instead cricket is being hidden away yet again.

So the 'FTA component' is an 8 minute video edit over a music bed. That is a massive step back from what has been offered to FTA viewers previously - not good from BT. You're looking back to the 1994/5 series as the last time that there weren't FTA highlights (although there were regular reports in Grandstand).

http://sport.bt.com/the-ashes-catch-up-show-australia-v-england-first-test-day-one-91364231560283

It is shameful and just shows how cricket in general has little regard for it's non-paying audience - once again throwing in irrelevent Twenty20 matches for a FTA audience when there really is only one series that can capture the nations attention. It's short sighted too as I'm sure putting highlights on BT Sport Showcase for even just half an hour a night is more likely to bring subscribers in to watch BT Sport than for them to lose subscribers due to FTA highlights being available.

8 minutes is insulting.

I don't follow cricket, but eight minutes for an FTA highlights package is a massive step back.

Putting highlights on BT Showcase would be decent enough, as Brekkie has suggested.

I don't agree with one broadcasters having the live rights and the rights for highlights as well unless they make the highlights available on all major platforms or on terrestrial TV.

We all know what game BT are playing here and ultimately its at the expense of cricket fans.

Who’s producing this then Sunset and Vine? Looks like it’s all fibered as well.

No ghastly huge trucked touchscreen to be seen which is a blessed relief. Agreed the quality is fibre like, I'd expect there's a satellite back-up in the works via Madley to BT Tower too, given it's BT.

Do BT Sport/Sunset & Vine have access to the Channel 9 ground camera ISO's - or do they have a couple of PSC's around the ground for exclusive UK use?

A couple of times watching this morning, the commentator mentioned about fielding positions and we cut to a wide camera shot to show them. Then a player in the outfield was namechecked and we cut to a close up of him.

Either they have access to the raw feeds of the host broadcaster, or someone in the UK commentary box is passing requests for shots to the main match director.

S&V (for it is them producing - their first live England test since the C4 days) have four of their own cameras which are being cut into the main 9 feed. Presumably these four cameras are also doubling up as presentation cameras.

They might also have ISOs available - I’m not sure. Usually there’s a beauty shot ISO provided to visiting broadcasters isn’t there, for the purposes of overlaying full-screen graphics?

We’re getting a BT wipe into replays which I presume is a clever graphical skin, and it is still 9 replays that we are seeing, rather than S&V cueing their own in. In 10-11 and 13-14, Sky had a 9-branded wipe going into replays.

I do wonder if there’s the odd S&V replay being thrown in, though. The first replay of the first boundary of the day was the same camera cutting as the ‘live’ coverage a few seconds earlier, just slowed (including a cut to the batsmen running between the wickets). Usually, you’d expect a more polished replay, so either 9 were having issues or S&V have an EVS there and quickly turned around a replay based upon the host feed.

Interesting to note that when an lbw decision goes up review, we see 9 graphics, including their HawkEye ‘skin’. In the English summer, S&V manage to get a C5 ‘skin’ and graphics onto the review footage.

Yes and yes.