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Live Test Cricket returns to C4

India v England series (January 2021)

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



That's not a real account Wink

"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)"

I'm not the only one who got caught out by that!
CA
Cando

So, again, congrats to Channel 4 for putting in the strong case for getting the rights away from the 'usual suspects' in this one.


What strong case? It's pretty clear neither Sky or BT were willing to cough up, leaving C4 the last man standing
RR
RR
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.
Only selling them three days before the first test implies they did really dig in, but neither Sky nor BT wanted to pay for the rights, so nothing else Disney could do but sell to the only buyer.
HC
Hatton Cross
I go back to my previous point.
The Indian rights holders could have gone 'hardball' and only sold to pay tv rights holder. When those walked away (or didn't turn up) then they could have dropped the price to a level where they thought a Sky/BT bidding war could have broken out. When that didn't happen, they could have done something like stream the matches via the internet, or passed them off to one of Star channels aimed at the UK/IRE market.

Still curious as to why Sky didn't want them. ÂŁ20 mill for all games in the tour is nothing for them. Even stranger as they would have come off the back of broadcasting a rather meaningless 2 test series in Sri Lanka. A Test (and one day) series against India is by far the bigger drawn
UK
UKnews
The editor of ESPN Cricinfo reports...





We already knew the second bit and the Media Guardian article seemed pretty certain, but nothing official just yet.
UL
ulsterman92
The editor of ESPN Cricinfo reports...





We already knew the second bit and the Media Guardian article seemed pretty certain, but nothing official just yet.


BBC News Channel mentioned Channel 4 won the rights at 11am in the headlines then never mentioned it again during the sports news so think the Guardian may have jumped the gun.
UK
UKnews
Former colleague of mine says (not directly involved, but works in sports broadcasting), says he expects most / all the coverage will go on More4.

Based on what he's heard he also seems to think it's a case of when, not if.
Last edited by UKnews on 2 February 2021 1:07pm - 3 times in total
JO
Jon
Former colleague of mine says (not directly involved, but works in sports broadcasting), says he believes that if confirmed a large amount, if not all, the coverage will be on More 4.

I can’t really see it myself, it would seem like such a big deal for England Test Cricket to be back on Channel 4 and it would seem mad not use the main channel. It will surely beat Steph’s Packed Lunch for starters! It’s also not like most of it’s going to be eating up primetime.
Last edited by Jon on 2 February 2021 1:37pm
RO
robertclark125
When is the first test due to start? Also, do you think they may get David Gower and Sir Ian Botham on the coverage at all?
HC
Hatton Cross
Friday morning at 4am UK Time.
Last edited by Hatton Cross on 3 February 2021 2:13pm
BR
Brekkie
Former colleague of mine says (not directly involved, but works in sports broadcasting), says he expects most / all the coverage will go on More4.

Based on what he's heard he also seems to think it's a case of when, not if.

They surely wouldn't spend ÂŁ10m+ on morning content for More4. I'd expect it to be mainly on C4 other than during Sunday Brunch and perhaps for the later weekday sessions of the day/night test.
MA
madmusician
When is the first test due to start? Also, do you think they may get David Gower and Sir Ian Botham on the coverage at all?

Gower has tweeted that he would love to do it but hasn’t been asked. I think it’s all gone down a generation now, so we can expect to see younger people involved.

The press speculation this morning was the Rishi Persaud is lined up to host, with an array of recent England cricketers in the studio, including Andrew Strauss and Alistair Cook.

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