Black Wednesday: English Home Tests - Now Exclusive to SKY

[Nedved's Fan]

I don't know more than 5-6 people who have Sky

You from the ghetto or something??

 

[Tom Halsey]

Yeah, surprised me a bit aswell, as the majority of people I know have Sky - but still, Test Cricket will lose a big audience here.

 

[Langeveldt]

Jamee Your job's a joke, your broke, your love life's D.O.A says:
No more cricket on tv for me

Sums the whole thing up horribly

 

[Richard]

Will probably write it out (the letter) - I'm not expecting them to change it because of a few people sendng in letters that look mysteriously the same though.

My thoughts exactly.
Anything's worth a try, but I can't see it helping myself.

 

[Jamee999]

Yup; This will quite possibly drive me away from cricket back to football and rugby.

 

[Langeveldt]

Yup; This will quite possibly drive me away from cricket back to football and rugby.

Good for you.. If my photography doesnt progress like I want it to, I could well just become a back yard cricketer and not bother to follow any International cricket, the ICC, the ECB and all their bullsh**...

 

[Neil Pickup]

Many sports are exclusive to sky and are doing fine, infact doing better than ever.
45 mins highlights a night on prime time terrestrial is still good enough. The sport needs money to flourish.

No more stupid breaks for horseracing either!
Remember its not forever. They can always choose to go back to Ch4 or whoever wants it in 2009 (although once they get hooked on the money it will be hard to ever go back).
They should use the extra money to fund cricket in schools. Something which hardly happens anymore

Name me one other sport that's exclusive to Sky?

 

[Piper]

That is so unfair, not just coz i prolly wont be able to watch it, but my Grandad (who hasnt got Sky) wont be able to watch it now. I know they have to make money, but they also have to take the fans into consideration too

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Rugby League (great sport!). The only place you can see the Superleague or any internationals is on sky. BBC show like 3 challenge cup games a year but you cant count that as they are no more than pre-season friendlies in all but name.

Speedway is also excusive to sky. Both sports are probably as popular as ever.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Contrast the current popularity level of Cricket to those of League and Speedway.

Imagine the viewing figures that the Tri-nations final may have got.

 

[Richard]

That is so unfair, not just coz i prolly wont be able to watch it, but my Grandad (who hasnt got Sky) wont be able to watch it now. I know they have to make money, but they also have to take the fans into consideration too

One could argue that the two are more intertwined than might seem at first apparent.

 

[Langeveldt]

Rugby League (great sport!). The only place you can see the Superleague or any internationals is on sky. BBC show like 3 challenge cup games a year but you cant count that as they are no more than pre-season friendlies in all but name.

Speedway is also excusive to sky. Both sports are probably as popular as ever.

Both are also fairly minority (Although rugby league has a passionate following, its only in certain areas).. Never before has such a universal sport as cricket been butchered like this..

 

[marc71178]

Incidentally, I read that average viewing figures on C4 were a paltry 1.1 million.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Average isn't the issue, (most) people don't watch eight hours back-to-back.

When we consider average viewing time to be 1 hour, then it's suddenly 8.8m.

 

[marc71178]

I very much doubt there's ever been 8.8m watching it to be honest.

 

[Neil Pickup]

At one point or another, I'm pretty certain that that number of people will have watched some live cricket on terrestrial this summer.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Well there must be an audience for it cos sky / ch4 wouldnt have got bidding so high if there wasnt.
Im sure i read somewhere cricket constantly got in the top 2/3 viewing figures for ch4 every month it was on.

 

[Deja moo]

Thats really bad news.

If its any consolation, if you do end up paying, you'll be doing so to watch a really good English team on the field.

 

[Richard]

Now how will that look if South Africa win this series 3-1 or something?
I can't actually remember who are touring in 2006 - I just hope it's someone with a big reputation.
About time Pakistan toured, now I think about it.

 

[Deja moo]

I think its Pakistan and WI in 2006, India in 2007 and Aus in 2008.