ATTN: New Zealand Cricket fans/viewers

[kiwiboy18]

I have been Asking the CEO of Sky TV John Fellet if we could get more Cricket on Sky in New Zealand. In particular the Australian domestic 20/20 and the domestic 50 over competition.

Mr. Fellet said if he gets enough subscribers asking then he will get it for the New Zealand viewers.

If you would like to see the Australian domestic series or other Cricket on Sky please email Mr. Fellet at jfellet "at" skytv.co.nz

Thanks.

 

[SilentOne]

watching the Aussie domestic cricket over here would be great, but I'd rather we got some damn coverage of our own FC and domestic 50 over games tbh. The 20/20 rubbish just isn't enough.
Would also be great if Sky showed the England in SA series too. For what I fork out a month for the HD coverage I don't think it's asking too much.

 

[Sylvester]

I've sent an email.

 

[Somerset]

Would be more beneficial to get more New Zealand domestic cricket televised before looking at Australian competitions IMO...

 

[straw man]

With digital tv, freeview etc increasing the number of available channels and bringing down costs I can't see any reason why a lot more domestic cricket could not be shown on tv in the future. All it needs is a couple of cameras at the ground - don't bother with getting local hack commentators or anything like that. Hell, to be really cheap you could do away with cameramen and just permanently focus on the pitch from behind the bowler's arm.

I'm not sure that Sky would be the ones to do this though. Sounds more like what could be an NZC initiative - it wouldn't be a moneymaker but would be an investment in increasing interest in the game in the country.

 

[marc71178]

All well and good but surely if the presentation isn't up to much, people just won't watch.

 

[Polo23]

Why would we want the Aussie domestic comps televised on NZ TV when the NZ domestic comps arent even televised?

As others have said, i'd much rather watch our own domestic comp on tv.

 

[Smudge]

With digital tv, freeview etc increasing the number of available channels and bringing down costs I can't see any reason why a lot more domestic cricket could not be shown on tv in the future. All it needs is a couple of cameras at the ground - don't bother with getting local hack commentators or anything like that. Hell, to be really cheap you could do away with cameramen and just permanently focus on the pitch from behind the bowler's arm.
.

Yes, producing live television is a breeze. An utter breeze.

 

[kiwiboy18]

watching the Aussie domestic cricket over here would be great, but I'd rather we got some damn coverage of our own FC and domestic 50 over games tbh. The 20/20 rubbish just isn't enough.
Would also be great if Sky showed the England in SA series too. For what I fork out a month for the HD coverage I don't think it's asking too much.

You and I are in the same boat over this. I want to see ENG vs SAF too. It is in HD on Sky Sports UK. Mr. Fellet told me that he will show events depending on what viewers want to watch. So if you want to see that series or other ones, do email him. He reads every email. That is the only way Sky will know that people want to see Cricket. I am tired of watching Golf in HD.

If we can get more Cricket viewers emailing Sky they will definitely add more Cricket.

 

[Matt79]

Why would we want the Aussie domestic comps televised on NZ TV when the NZ domestic comps arent even televised?

As others have said, i'd much rather watch our own domestic comp on tv.

Very parochial point of view.

 

[Sylvester]

Didn't know NZ didn't even show their own domestic comp. Definitely email about that, at worst they should be showing a lot more NZ ODD matches.

 

[Somerset]

You and I are in the same boat over this. I want to see ENG vs SAF too. It is in HD on Sky Sports UK. Mr. Fellet told me that he will show events depending on what viewers want to watch. So if you want to see that series or other ones, do email him. He reads every email. That is the only way Sky will know that people want to see Cricket. I am tired of watching Golf in HD.

If we can get more Cricket viewers emailing Sky they will definitely add more Cricket.

To be fair, I'm sure we'll be getting coverage of the Australian home tests and ODIs against the West Indies and Pakistan, as well as our own international matches, so to get coverage of the South African home series at times would be an overload of cricket on the Sky Sport stations from my perspective anyway.

 

[Prince EWS]

Would be more beneficial to get more New Zealand domestic cricket televised before looking at Australian competitions IMO...

watching the Aussie domestic cricket over here would be great, but I'd rather we got some damn coverage of our own FC and domestic 50 over games tbh. The 20/20 rubbish just isn't enough.

Televising the Australian stuff would be a lot easier for them though, because there's already coverage of it; they could just buy it. Sending entire teams of people out to cover more NZ games would be significantly harder to achieve.

 

[NUFAN]

Televising the Australian stuff would be a lot easier for them though, because there's already coverage of it; they could just buy it. Sending entire teams of people out to cover more NZ games would be significantly harder to achieve.

Yeah but what sort of audience do you think they'd get?

The viewing audience would be less than Fox Sports gets here in Oz for the NZ Rugby Comp that has been showing recently.

Having said that, it wouldn't be bad if NZ get some KFC Big Bash matches.

 

[Hurricane]

I am not sure that I would watch Aussie domestic cricket. would watch NZ domestic cricket religiously.

 

[Southern Lad]

With digital tv, freeview etc increasing the number of available channels and bringing down costs I can't see any reason why a lot more domestic cricket could not be shown on tv in the future. All it needs is a couple of cameras at the ground - don't bother with getting local hack commentators or anything like that. Hell, to be really cheap you could do away with cameramen and just permanently focus on the pitch from behind the bowler's arm.

I'm not sure that Sky would be the ones to do this though. Sounds more like what could be an NZC initiative - it wouldn't be a moneymaker but would be an investment in increasing interest in the game in the country.

If you do things, do them well. This would look very amatuer, and would probarbly do the opposite to what you were hoping, as this would really be a tough watch, spending half a days cricket watching staring at a wicket keepers arse would put off even the biggest cricket fan.

I would also doubt any camera man worth his salt would be happy to have his camera stand for a day unattended, whith potentailly drunk spectators around.

 

[Smudge]

If you do things, do them well. This would look very amatuer, and would probarbly do the opposite to what you were hoping, as this would really be a tough watch, spending half a days cricket watching staring at a wicket keepers arse would put off even the biggest cricket fan.

I would also doubt any camera man worth his salt would be happy to have his camera stand for a day unattended, whith potentailly drunk spectators around.

And that's just half of it. Pray, straw man, do tell - who's vision switching? Who's the sound engineer as we will need commentators - you can't just have dead air or even just effects mikes? How do they get the signal back to their MCR to broadcast out to Sky viewers? Considering many of the games are in, dare I say, rural backwaters or at least minor cities, 80 percent of them won't be set up for fibre, which means they would have to cart satellites around (which can be done - we do it with half our tracks, but it still requires an extra staff member). As Southern Lad said, there's a danger issue with cameras, and static, locked-off shots are terribly, terribly bad low-grade television.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but any live broadcast quite simply isn't a cheap exercise, and I imagine the viewing numbers for Plunket Shield games most certainly wouldn't justify the outlay. More OD games? Perhaps, but again, many of them follow the summer holiday circuit.

 

[superkingdave]

To be fair, I'm sure we'll be getting coverage of the Australian home tests and ODIs against the West Indies and Pakistan, as well as our own international matches, so to get coverage of the South African home series at times would be an overload of cricket on the Sky Sport stations from my perspective anyway.

The more cricket the better imo..we've got India-SL, Eng-SA & Aus-Wi on this month, dissapointed that Sky aren't showing NZ-Pak as well as they usually show NZ home series.

 

[Athlai]

And that's just half of it. Pray, straw man, do tell - who's vision switching? Who's the sound engineer as we will need commentators - you can't just have dead air or even just effects mikes? How do they get the signal back to their MCR to broadcast out to Sky viewers? Considering many of the games are in, dare I say, rural backwaters or at least minor cities, 80 percent of them won't be set up for fibre, which means they would have to cart satellites around (which can be done - we do it with half our tracks, but it still requires an extra staff member). As Southern Lad said, there's a danger issue with cameras, and static, locked-off shots are terribly, terribly bad low-grade television.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but any live broadcast quite simply isn't a cheap exercise, and I imagine the viewing numbers for Plunket Shield games most certainly wouldn't justify the outlay. More OD games? Perhaps, but again, many of them follow the summer holiday circuit.

Yeah the FC matches are certainly a bridge too far in televising our domestic game, but I would be interested in how the one day game may go if given a bit of an honest run one year. Certainly as you point out quite a bit of hard yakker logistically but I can't help but feel that the one day stuff could get some decent following. Sky probably won't bother but NZ on air is already pissing money away on television no one watches on TV7 etc. Maori TV has shown a lot of less popular sporting events like league and one of these new channels could perhaps emulate that idea. It does fulfill the (somewhat bull****) NZ on air broadcast guidelines.

Though this is very wishful thinking. I just want more cricket, even if the only matches televised are from the bigger centres.

 

[Flem274*]

I am not sure that I would watch Aussie domestic cricket. would watch NZ domestic cricket religiously.

This.

Since I need a holiday job, give me a camera and some petrol money. My coverage will be crap because TV camera dudes are obviously pros, but you'd get some form of picture.