Sky have won the rights to all of Englands home test matchs until 2010 and channel 5 look like getting the high lights package.
BBC radio have won the radio rights until 2009

Yeah, I just heard on Radio 4 that thE BBC have just lost it.

Will not affect me but I am sure there will be plenty of people bothered this.

I'm a bit annoyed, but I'll get over it.

What annoys me is the fact that if things carry on like this to see any sport worth watching in this country you are going to have to stick a wad of cash in Rupert Murdoch's back pocket, all because of the Governments obsessive belief in "Competition"

Originally posted by Yodameister
I'm a bit annoyed, but I'll get over it.

What annoys me is the fact that if things carry on like this to see any sport worth watching in this country you are going to have to stick a wad of cash in Rupert Murdoch's back pocket, all because of the Governments obsessive belief in "Competition"

Eventually Sky will get everything (whether it's worth watching or not!) precisely because there IS no real competition. Channel 4 and the BBC can't compete monetarily with Sky, which is after all a subscription-based company that effectively has a monopoly on paid-for channels.

Funny that the cricket authorities claim to want to get as many state schools as possible devoting time and energy to the sport, at the same time as depriving the majority of the country from becoming interested in the first place by watching it on terrestrial TV.

To award Sky exclusivity is a stupid, backwards decision that's all about money and greed.

Yes, I like Cricket a lot and actually, this will make me go out and actually go to games more often.

BUT, if it wasn't for the BBC coverage when I was younger I never would have got into it at all. It is what I believe you call "killing the goose that laid the golden egg"

Yet another example of why the belief that "The free market is best" is not as true as we are always told.

The ONLY sport I like is International Cricket with the england team playing. I hate football.

I like to dip into it from time to time when a 5 day test is on, although my preferred way of enjoying it is test match special on Radio4 longwave especially when blowers is on! (and now I have DAB radio at work and home, it's even better on sports extra channel which has no breaks at all)

Now I think anyone who watches a full test match from end to end on the TV who isn't able to do anything better with themselves, is a pretty lazy and hopeless person. And while when on channel4 I would often switch on at lunchtime If popping home for a little look and the end of the day's play in the evening I wouldn't dream of paying for sky, and could happily do without it at all. I can't imagine how sky are going to get any extra revenue from this contract at all.

The only time a test mach suceeds as a pub viewing sport is when they play in the caribbean, because the days play coincides with our late evening. Who is going to watch it when it's on live at 6 in the morning?

what the hell
not cricket aswell

The only way for the man in the street to get back to having sport avaliable to everyone is to boycott Murdoch, and his companies.
Cancel your Sky subscription, if enough people did it he wouldn't be strong enough to bid silly amounts of money for every popular sport.
I know it's difficult, and for the first couple of weeks you miss it, but after that you just get used to the other five channels.

It looks like all county cricket (including the trophies) all England Internationals and all womens cricket which will probably have more coverage than ever now compared to before on TV.

The deal is worth around £220m Is this a good deal for cricket money wise?

Looks like i'll be getting a sky sports subscription then. I dont know whats p***** me off more,sky getting the full tests or C5 getting the high lights,cos you know they'll f*** it up. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by mr craig
Looks like i'll be getting a sky sports subscription then. I dont know whats p***** me off more,sky getting the full tests or C5 getting the high lights,cos you know they'll f*** it up. :rolleyes:

Yes they may get the overactive football commentator for the highlights back.

I feel this is wrong and something should be done about it.

Sky just snap up all the various sports and then eventually push prices up and introduce Pay per view.

Originally posted by duffman
It looks like all county cricket (including the trophies) all England Internationals and all womens cricket which will probably have more coverage than ever now compared to before on TV.

The deal is worth around £220m Is this a good deal for cricket money wise?

Money wise, I would not be surprised to see a lot of the extra just going on players wages, much as happened with football.

I believe the problem for cricket is this:

At the moment, the England Team is on a 20 year high. The overwhelming interest in cricket (for the TV viewing public) is in the England Team - they are more likely to want to watch a good and successful team.

So, if, when the deal comes up for renewal England are doing badly, Sky have very low (even for them) viewing figures - what happens when Sky say "sorry, ECB, we're not that interested any more" Channel 4 tell them to get lost (they have already virtually said "dont expect us back again")

The ECB will probably be left with the BBC bailing them out, probably offering them a deal worth about a quarter of what it is now.

Okay, it may not work out exactly like that, but its an all too predictable and possible scenario.

Well at least the BBC have got the radio rights. I had to put up with Talk Sport last winter which was dreadful

Originally posted by Lickszz
I feel this is wrong and something should be done about it.

Sky just snap up all the various sports and then eventually push prices up and introduce Pay per view.

Off the subject of Cricket but Sky are taking away Nickelodeon from Telewest viewers and prompting them in adverts to call Sky if they wish to continue viewing it.

Agree with you there Likszz. They do just swallow up everything in order for you to sign up to the over priced subscription with pay per view on top.

They even attempted it with PPV Darts a few weeks back. Thank god that was a failure and hopefully they will be discouraged from trying it again.

I was just writing a Darts thread when I saw this after, there is a limit to what you can show and how much of it let alone put it on PPV.

How long before we see PPV 20-20 Cricket or one of the trophies?

Yes, the one day events would be an ideal starting point for sky to trial a PPV event. If Sky could get away with it they would attempt to introduce more and more of these PPV's.

There is surely a limit to pay per view.

There comes a point at which people are not prepared to pay for it. Comparing any sport to football does not really make sense as the country is going through a football obsession at the moment - all over newspapers (front and back pages, gossip columns, tv pages, you name it) There is never going to be the same demand for any other sport and if Sky think they can create that demand they are in for a shock.

This is what I think Sky are good at though, building things up and making people think that the event is something not to be missed.