Live Test Cricket returns to C4

Cricket

The real dereliction came from those at the England and Wales Cricket Board who willingly sold them the lot, even packing away the free highlights on Five: an utter embolism of a channel watched by half a million idiots, curious about nothing but home makeovers and secrets of the Hitler bunker.

A wondrous comment and critique in this article

Channel 4 return would be a significant, poignant development for Test cricket | @jonathanliew https://t.co/ecndRxR7G1

— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) February 1, 2021

Just published.

Terrible comment in my opinion, Channel 4 did a great job for cricket and I still think the ECB made a mistake moving all to Sky in 2006 and the current BBC deal they have admitted they made a mistake not having any cricket on FTA but Channel 5 coverage was brilliant and had a good ratings, Simon Hughes said they used to get about 1 million when England won.

Cricket

Channel 4’s coverage of England’s Test series in India could be fronted by Rishi Persad, who used to present the channel’s racing coverage.

The broadcaster is believed to be on the verge of securing the rights to the four-match series, which begins on Friday, in a deal that would return live Test cricket to terrestrial television for the first time since 2005. It is understood that a lack of interest from BT Sports and Sky Sports means that Channel 4 has been able to buy the rights from the host broadcaster, Star Sports, for significantly less than the original value of about £20 million.

Rishi Persad lined up by Channel 4 to lead cricket coverage of India v England Tests with Andrew Strauss + Alastair Cook also approached. Story by @legsidelizzy https://t.co/cTZr8ToQXN

— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) February 2, 2021

Cricket - Channel 4 win rights - Confirmed

Channel 4 wins rights for England's Test cricket tour of India https://t.co/6a7aE6wSBs

— Media Guardian (@mediaguardian) February 2, 2021

C4 know what people first think about when Cricket on their channel is mentioned..

Good result for Channel 4. Although note the rights are 'non exclusive' so that could mean a late BT or Sky deal to show the coverage as well as Channel 4 - although highly unlikely.

Now, lets see who the production company are, and the on air team - and who Channel 4 Sales have been bothering yesterday to get some sponsorship money in, to help pay for this.

Proves one thing - don't write off the PSB's yet in the face of multi channel pay tv channels!

I wouldn't quite go that far, both these things are true:

1: It's good news for Cricket and will entertain a lot of people stuck at home who don't have pay TV.

2: C4 have got these rights because Sky and BT didn't want them, or at least didn't value them enough to put in competitive bids. They won't have won a high priced bidding war.

I've still got half a suspicion that Amazon showing the autumn rugby cup last year had more than a little to do with this.

There were some previous comments in this thread about the C4/More4 split being a potential issue. Unless I'm mistaken, only Sky & Virgin have More4-HD - and on Virgin it's a top-tier channel.

That's not a real account

"From The Cricket Roadshow to Desktop Richie to Mambo No.5 to Jargon Busting, we'll be tweeting great memories & features 🏏 (Not associated with Channel 4)"

My last comment was nothing serious. I know when it comes to the chequebooks for rights between Sky and BT, Channel 4 would have very quickly left the room - at great speed!

Athough it is a good win of sorts, because Disney/Star/BCCI could have really dug in to get money out of the UK rights market and insisted that the live rights could only go to a Pay tv broadcaster, as they could only afford to cough up the notes required.
So, again, congrats to Channel 4 for putting in the strong case for getting the rights away from the 'usual suspects' in this one.

I hope the viewing figures put back some faith in going for the rights in the first place.

Absolutely. It's those who like repeats of Frasier in the mornings who I feel sorry for

Think this warrants breaking out from the sport thread now it's confirme that C4 have the rights to the India v England Test series which begins on Friday, with 4 test matches, 3 ODIs and 5 T20 matches. Sky are said not to have bid for the rights, and wasn't too much interest elsewhere it seems. Rishi Persad is touted to host alongside Alastair Cook and Andrew Straus.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/feb/02/channel-4-wins-rights-for-england-test-cricket-tour-of-india

Three of the four tests begin at 4am, so will be done by around 11am. There is a day/night test which starts around 9am, as do the ODIs, whilst the T20s are around 1.30pm - so there will be a bit of disruption to the afternoon schedule later in the series if they all air on C4 itself.