Test Cricket on terrestrial TV

I personally had no interest in cricket at all until C4 took over in 1999 - and then mainly tuned in from a presentation point of view to see how they handled the graphics and commercial breaks etc. and though not a regular viewer, it was good background TV.

Seven years later England have won The Ashes as C4 lost the rights, with Sky signing up for the next four years - including the next Ashes series in England. Highlights will air on five.

Never ones to miss a bandwagon, a few MPs have begun demanding test cricket is kept free to air (where were they when it was delisted!) - so what do you think?


Personally I feel cricket will suffer from the lack of terrestrial exposure in the long term - they may have the money now, but will they have the players in the future? However, I don't think there is a real demand for all home Test matches to be on Free to Air TV.

England had a good series last year, but nowhere near as much publicity. The campaigners quote the figure of 8m viewers watching Cricket on C4, but that just refers to the end of a couple of Ashes Tests. Generally C4 cricket are peak at half that figure.


I certainly don't think the demand is there for every home Test match to be free to air, but certainly think The Ashes should be on that list!


The next question is, come the next round of rights deals who will be in the frame? Will Sky just get the chance to extend their deal, or will C4 want it back! When they lost the rights, C4 actually told the ECB not to expect them to rescue them in 4 years time! The bid C4 did put in would have seen the first Test series of each summer on Sky, with the main four or five match series on C4.



And as for the BBC - I'm sure many will think they should buy the rights, but personally I don't think it's of great value to the licence payer to pay a significant amount more than their commerical rivals are willing too just in order to secure the rights!

what a surprise!

Cricket should be on a dedicated sports channel which actually shows the presentation ceremonies rather than dumping out of the coverage to show bloomin' Hollyoakes, or whatever that trash is called.

It should also be shown in full, not interrupted every ten minutes by the next soddin' race from Kempton Park.

Did Channel Four bother showing the presentations yesterday evening, I wonder? Probably not, as they don't care a toss about cricket. I have to say that I wouldn't know, as I was watching from a FAR better location than from in front of a television tuned to Channel bloomin' Four.

Roll on the Sky coverage from now on, so we can see the game PROPERLY, and on a channel that CARES, rather than just pops it between the other stuff because they feel they ought to.

just having had a quick look on s4c's site to see if they showed the cricket - and noticed "news at noon" scheduled. do s4c show the itn programme, or is it s4c's own bbc produced version?

As I understand it, all S4C's news coverage comes from the BBC, which means they WILL be able to show the full coverage of the Ashes celebrations, starting at 11:00 today (Tuesday).

Channel Four's rights terminated at 23:59 on Monday and all they're showing on Tuesday is a quick insert into their news at noon.

I gather the Beeb snapped up the full celebration rights within minutes of realising that Channel Four hadn't got a leg to stand on after midnight.

Believe me most Australians wouldn't have been able to see this years Ashes Test, had it not been from the most unlikely source in Australian TV: SBS.

Foxtel (which is the main Pay TV subscription service in Australia) was probably going to bid for the broadcast right and if that bid has been successful, then Aussie cricket fans would be stuck listening to it on radio or watching a delayed telecast.

Well whilst I'm certain all of that is correct, the programme shown at 1200 on S4C is indeed the ITN programme C4 show.

Incidentally the most recent S4C viewing figures put the cricket as the most watched English-language programme of the week -- attracting 70,000 viewers.

That really is how few people watch the channel these days.

I think C4 coverage has been totally excellent. I'm gutted that Sky have it though, taking the game away from so many people.

So go sign the petition and help keep cricket free

Keep Cricket Free

Write to your MP as well

Yep. They stayed with it right through to the end, dropping both the Simpsons and Hollyoaks.

Why can't these 'many people' get Sky? Before TV was invented you had to 'pay' to watch cricket. I'm sure Sky Sports for the year costs less than buying a ticket for five days of just one test match!

Plus you get all the overseas tests as well.

Before Sky came we never got live coverage of overseas tests.

It really pees me off when people at work say they 'can't afford' Sky and then go to Starbucks two or three times a day for a two quid coffee, rather than making an instant in the staff room!!

Because perhaps some people don't wish to commit themselves to paying 50 quid a month for a few extra channels. Not really that hard to understand, is it?