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Sky is the limit
By Will last year, mid-July, 2 Comments »
I find this overwhelmingly depressing.
Official television industry viewing figures show that Sunday’s cricket was watched by 358,000 people on average between 10am and 2pm, then after two, until that absorbing close, by an average of 800,000. The peak audience, at 6.30?6.45pm, to watch Panesar and Anderson successfully see England to the draw, was 1.47m.
That is considered a respectable pay-television audience by the England and Wales Cricket Board, Sky and TV insiders. It does not, however, compare with the huge audiences drawn to the Ashes on free-to-air Channel 4 in 2005. Then, the peak periods of the third, fourth and fifth Tests, all similarly thrilling closing moments, were watched by 7.48m, 8.2m and 7.2m people respectively. Cricket garnered huge, growing audiences; the 8.2m fourth Test peak drew a 47% share of people watching television at the time.
Any comparison with this year must allow for the fact that we have had only the first Test but the ECB’s decision to sell the rights exclusively to BSkyB has dramatically cut the television audience for its sport. Despite the oceans of top action BSkyB has bought up exclusively, with not a single Premier League football match having ever been shown live on free-to-air television in 17 years, and despite the universally recognised quality of its coverage, under a quarter, 6m, of British homes subscribe to Sky Sports.
Full piece at The Guardian. The impact of ECB’s massive own goal won’t be felt fully for another decade, but it will eventually.
2 Comments »Sky High Disappointment
By Richard Seeckts last year, mid-June, 2 Comments »
Sky TV, who hold all the aces for cricket broadcasting in the UK since the ECB dropped its trousers four years ago, seems to have become a victim of its own technological success. Whatever one thinks of Sky’s unrivalled record for turning great sportsmen and Paul Allott into bonkers or deathly dull commentators, the advances in technology every year are mighty impressive.
Great play is currently being made of the HD (High Definition) service, with former England captains extolling its virtues frequently to sell the service for the Ashes series. Sky claims to have “a huge number of people registering to upgrade”.
Trouble is that if you apply for it now you will probably get a response from Sky saying “you’ll be able to complete your order and arrange installation in around 3 months”. So there’s a reasonable chance of seeing that scheduling stinker, the 7th ODI from Chester-le-Street on 20th September. High definition rain, then.
2 Comments »Bobby’s Dazzlers
By Will last year, at the end of May, No Comments; be the first!
Viewers of Sky Sports were this morning treated to a visual vomitorium with the sight of Bob Willis dressed in what can only be described as a camp-pink sequin jacket, fronting an equally mincing segment on Cricket AM called Bobby’s Dazzlers. This, ladies and gentlemen, was a triumph of cheese; a brawling maelstrom of incongruity. It was ludicrous, unlikely and I demand we see more.
Bob – sorry, Bobby – is dressed in a jacket that looks like it’s been covered in syrup, then rolled over and over on a bed of hundreds and thousands, before being dry-cleaned at the Angel Delight factory’s principle pot of gooey, disgusting shame. Bobby then fires a series of questions at a contestant, with all the seriousness of Bob Holness and Bruce “didn’t they do well?” Forsyth but tsunami quantities of eery cheese.
“Hold your gold there, Del Boy,” he winks, as the contestant fired a blank at his first question. “Nobody likes a smarty-pants.”
This is Bob Willis, the Sunderland screamer; the blancmange-haired tearaway with 325 Test wickets; him of demonic eyes in 1981. He’s a Bob Dylan fan of rare addiction; he even added Dylan as one of his middle names.
Bob, or Bobby, has never courted convention. In 2005 he propped up the table in The Wisden Cricketer’s survey of the greatest commentators, polling just 15% of the votes, only just sneaking ahead of Paul Allott. Perhaps wary of his on-air rants, and subtle-as-a-brick referencing to sponsor names (“Welcome to the Jade Stadium” a particular gem I loved), Sky soon had him grazing in the less risky surroundings of their studios. This has not stopped his furious toe-tapping at the ignorance – hell, the sickening insouciance – of players’ and officials’ knowledge of the laws, not least bowling rates per hour.
“Daryl Harper – hopeless, Billy Bowden – a showpony. Steve Bucknor – past his sell-by date,” he spat in 2005. Umpires get the full Bobby treatment, never more so than poor old Daryl Harper during the West Indies series in February. “He’s got to be given his pension book and [taken] out of there. He is hopeless,” Willis cussed. ‘Nuff respect, BW.
The Daily Telegraph’s Jim White tore into him and Charles Colville a few years ago, describing Bob’s “goggle-eyed rants” with comical precision. “It takes an act of significant will not to cower behind the sofa every time Willis – almost as angry as Colville – comes on screen.”
Out of the fire, into the … pink jacket? Who knows where Bobby’s career is now heading, but he’s rapidly cornering a niche in the cricket commentators’ market. Sky have a gem on their hands. Please, please have him sit in with Shane Warne during stints this summer and let us all sit back and enjoy.
If anyone has the video of Bobby’s Dazzlers to share, drop me a line. This needs global publicity
No Comments »Say it again, Bob
By Will last year, mid-February, 1 Comment »
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As England slumped yesterday, Sky’s commentary team sprung into fervent action. Its coverage of events in Jamaica was excellent, led by Ian Ward (Wardy) in the studio, whose questions to Nick Knight (Knighty), Bob Willis (Bob) and Nasser Hussain (Nass) were akin to floaty half-volleys, the like of which England’s batsmen could only dream of as Jerome Taylor continued to york them for fun. Hussain and co responded magnificently.
But first, it was Willis who provided the entertainment when he launched another dreamy attack on Daryl Harper, the third umpire who upheld another controversial decision which was referred by the players. “He’s got to be given his pension book and [taken] out of there,” Willis spat, his lip curled in disgust. “He is hopeless.” Hussain and Mikey Holding were no less disparaging, both lauding the use of technology while questioning the credentials of the person sitting behind the monitor.
By now, Ward was revelling in his role as the anchorman with licence to laugh. Barely able to suppress his giggling at Willis’s growing animosity towards everyone, with perfect timing England began to collapse, providing him with further ammunition to wind up his easily-angered colleagues. Not even the usually polite and cheery Knight could hide his confusion and anger at the dominoes tumbling in Kingston. “These are Test cricketers!” he pleaded to the camera with justifiably perplexed anguish. His excellent analysis of Alastair Cook’s near-total lack of feet movement provided substance to his grumbles, but it wasn’t long before Ian Botham (Sir Ian, or Sreean) turned the tables on him.
Knight knows Ian Bell better, perhaps, than Ian Bell knows himself. And after a brief impression of Tony Blair – palms open, and a call for unity: “hey, guys. Come on. Let’s be sensible” – Knight admitted that Bell’s issues, unlike Cook, are upstairs in the head. Bell’s detractors might not have learned much by that facile analysis, but in one fell swoop, England’s No.3 had lost the backing of his No.1 fan.
Hussain, though, stood out. Rarely is Botham demoted to being a sideshow yet, as Kingston began to reverberate, Hussain didn’t let him get a word in. A torrent of analysis, anger, mild abuse and pent-up frustration frothed from Hussain’s mouth, as a gleeful Ward fed him with questions straight out of the Devil’s Advocate handbook.
Sky – who are not a free-to-air channel – aren’t often applauded, but their coverage of a wonderfully dramatic day in Jamaica was both entertaining and slick.
1 Comment »Cricket to return to terrestrial?
By Will last year, at the end of January, 11 Comments »
Having been away for a few days, this passed me by. It’s reported in The Grauniad that cricket could make a return to free-to-air TV sooner rather than later, if Andy Burnham (government’s culture secretary) has anything to do with it.
I’ve banged on about this for years. On the one hand, the ECB seek and need vast sums of money, which BSkyB can happily provide them. They pledge a percentage of that to grassroots cricket, development and other charitable activities. But in selling the rights to a pay-per-view broadcaster they cut the prospective number of viewers by a significant margin. Yes, they are piling money into things like Chance to Shine – and other initiatives which promote cricket in deprived socioeconomic areas of the country – but it could also be argued that Sky subscribers themselves are an elite. They are still a minority, after all (Sky subscriber stats anyone?). If they sold it to the BBC, a free-to-air broadcaster, suddenly English cricket is given essentially free advertising and the seeds of cricket’s interest are planted among millions of children, lazily flicking from CBeebies to Newsround on their summer holidays when they catch sight of Flintoff smacking Ponting in the face. What’s that? Some bloke’s been hit on the head by a red ball. Brilliant! I could do that. I will do that! Not that I’m advocating violence, but let’s face it: we all love to see a batsman sconned, especially when we’re 10.
That’s an idealistic and slightly naive point of view. I know that. I know the ECB needs money if they’re to compete with other national boards, but imagine if the 2005 Ashes hadn’t been on Sky. Would the country have whipped itself up into such an orgy? Yes, it probably would have, but not to the same frenzied extent. This year’s Ashes is the first in Britain not to be televised for free, and for all Sky’s excellence – their highlights package is usually 2 or 3 hours’ worth each day, for example, and the coverage is mostly quality – they can’t penetrate the country’s subconscious like Channel 4 or the BBC did. £300 million is £300 million, but how many millions of schoolchildren will be not bovvered because the Ashes is on Sky?
So. Returning in a roundabout way to the Guardian piece, it seems the various different formats of the game could be sold off independently from one another.
It is believed that placing international Twenty20 cricket on the list would be welcomed by free-to-air broadcasters such as the BBC, which would find it easier to schedule than Test cricket, and appeal to potential new, and younger, audiences.
As broadcasters and governing bodies begin jockeying for position ahead of the first review of the list for 10 years, the BBC is also expected to argue that the Ryder Cup and British and Irish Lions rugby union tours should be added to the list of protected events such as the FA Cup final, the Derby and the football World Cup that have “special national resonance” and “serve to unite the nation”.
Your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen, are welcomed in the comments.
(Also see TV won England the Ashes from three years ago)
(Also, I appreciate there’s a lot of Sky banners at the moment. I’m a sell-out. Bite me)
11 Comments »The new daddy of the commentary box
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, mid-August, 2 Comments »
1) I never saw Ian Botham play.
2) My impression of him has thus been shaped entirely by his commentary career.
3) As such, I think Ian Botham’s a bit of a moron.
Shaun Pollock might not have scored as many Test runs as Botham, but as this exchange showed, there’s no substitute for research:
Botham: Two Morkels in the one-day squad. Are they related?
Pollock: Yes, they’re brothers.
In just a few weeks, Pollock has given Botham and the rest of the Sky statues an object lesson in commentary. He’s a natural, both on TV and radio. He’s got interesting things to say; things you might not already know, things you might not be able to work out simply from looking at the screen. He’s leans on his experience without allowing it to dictate his analysis. Best of all, he knows when to be quiet. If he can lose his unfortunate predilection for inadvertently namechecking sponsors, he could be a star in the making.
2 Comments »‘Sky to keep TV rights’
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, at the start of August, 14 Comments »
If this is true, then it’s an absolute travesty. Either the ECB or the BBC are to blame, or – and such is the incompetence of both that this is by far the most likely scenario – they’ve managed to bungle things between them.
FYI
The cheapest Sky Sports package costs £34 a month at present, possibly rising to over £40 by the time the next TV deal begins.
TV audiences for Test match cricket have dropped 75% since Sky took over.
14 Comments »Video of Kevin Pietersen…playing golf?
By Will 3 years ago, mid-June, 6 Comments »
A colleague sent this to me today and it is required viewing. Sky Sports’ advert for the US Open, featuring Kevin Pietersen. If you can’t see the video below, try here.
6 Comments »If…with Mike Atherton
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of May, 13 Comments »
Has anyone else listened and watched Sky’s advertisement for their all-consuming coverage this summer? It’s fronted (for want of a better word, as it’s a voice over) by Mike Atherton. Now then. Athers is many things, but a voice-over artiste he is not. He sounds about as enthused as a prisoner who’s just been told that, yes, today he is allowed one hour of sunlight as opposed to the usual 45 minutes.
Athers recites Rudyard Kipling’s If and it’s as sickly and inappropriate as it sounds. (not Athers’ fault of course, but Sky’s ferocious marketers)
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!
Incidentally I came across some viewing figures on the Beeb yesterday which make make interesting reading. I put them on CI…will dig them out later.
13 Comments »Broadcast Views
By Scott 4 years ago, at the start of December, 11 Comments »
Reverse Swinging Mark has his say on Sky’s broadcast roster.
The classic sports arrangement consists of a commentator who actually describes what’s going on out in the middle, alongside a ‘colour’ man who, well, adds the colour to the picture the commentator has described – effectively providing deeper analysis of what’s going on.
Every other sport seems to recognise this – football commentary is left to the professional commentators (Motson, Davies, Tyler) with ex-pros like the exemplary Andy Gray, just providing the ‘colour’ – the same with Rugby Union where Miles Harrison and Stuart Barnes have developed a level of understanding that rugby hasn’t witnessed since Gareth Edwards and Phil Bennett were strutting their stuff.
Sky Cricket’s problem is that they have too many ‘colour’ guys and not enough commentators – in fact, they haven’t actually got any at all. You need balance to ensure that the commentary flows with the game – but instead, with Sky, we get a series of ex players who feel that they have to continually justify their presence with elaborate analysis of every thought, word and deed of the players in the middle – plus a whole lot more beyond that, without realising that all we actually need is some sort of insight into what is actually happening, and why. No one is doing orthodox commentary, because no one has been asked/told to – so the Sky product is fundamentally flawed.
As it happens, I tuned in my television to watch the New Zealand vs Sri Lanka Test match, and to my surprise the first voice I heard was that of the veteran West Indies commentator, Tony Cozier. Whether or not he’s emigrated to New Zealand, or doing some freelancing, I have no idea, but it was a delight to hear him.
Cricket in New Zealand is broadcast by Sky NZ, and it suffers from almost the opposite problem to that described by Mark- too much commentary, and not enough colour. I’m not sure where Jeremy Coney has got to, but the rest of the local commentators are too descriptive and.. boring.
Unfortunately, there’s not a great market for Test cricket in New Zealand. Shane Bond is giving the Sri Lankans a royal grilling before a nearly empty stadium, and so when broadcasting in this sort of environment, it is important to ‘pep it up’ a bit. You do not need the ‘Barmy Army’ to create atmosphere but you do need to have more then 15% of the seats sold.
This isn’t meant to be an attack on Sky NZ, who are doing a great job- the camera work is as good as anything Nine in Australia can come up with. The graphics are smart and professional. They just need to think ‘outside the square’ somewhat to liven things up. If they hired Tony Cosier to this end, then they have made a good start.
11 Comments »An odd couple: Colville and Willis
By Will 4 years ago, at the end of November, 3 Comments »
There’s a scathing attack by Jim White in today’s Telegraph on Sky’s coverage of the first Test. It’s done with humour though, and had me in stitches – especially this on Charles Colville and Bob Willis:
While Bhasin is all eager and enthusiastic, bouncing round Boycott in puppyish thrill at being there, Colville has taken it upon himself to become the Mr Angry of the Ashes, fuming about England’s selection decisions, poor bowling and limp fielding.
Anything and everything is capable of sending him into a tailspin of rage. After the first Test ended in ignominious defeat on Monday, he became so incensed he had to be restrained by his guest, Nick Knight.
“Whoa Charles,” Knight said, wearing the startled look of a man who had stumbled into a recording of the new series on Bravo, When Normally Mild Mannered Cricket Chaps Attack. In fact, it was lucky Knight was there to tip a verbal bucket of water over the steaming presenter. Had Colville’s guest been – as it sometimes has – Bob Willis, the blood pressure in the studio would have turned thermo-nuclear.
It takes an act of significant will not to cower behind the sofa every time Willis – almost as angry as Colville – comes on screen. Especially now he has taken to delivering his goggle-eyed rants direct into the camera.
All he needs is to borrow Boycott’s headgear and he will morph seamlessly into the John McCririck of cricket.
There is an obvious solution for Duncan Fletcher as he searches for the speediest way back into the series: put Colville and Willis out there in Adelaide and even the battled-hardened Aussies would take flight at the very sight of them.
Chuck’s great value – I’d rather him, with his passion and anger, than a bland, shiny toe-the-line presenter. More at the Telegraph.
3 Comments »BBC claw back lost ground
By Will 4 years ago, mid-September, 1 Comment »
So, the BBC are going to broadcast highlights of the Ashes this winter – an interesting development as it appears to have come from nowhere. Sky, who were awarded the rights from the ECB almost exactly 12 months ago (earning the English board a reported £200m) – a decision which caused the ECB to hide under the table, with just their greens for comfort in the Anderson shelter. The doodle-bug passed by, though.
Initially I was angry at the ECB – angry at Sky, too. But it’s not Sky’s fault they have the money to beat off the competition; it’s also the apathy, or disinterest of certain other broadcasters, which ended free-to-air cricket. I wonder now if the BBC are starting to regret it.
At the BBC’s Sports Editor’s blog, the director of BBC Sport, Roger Mosey says:
Now, before anyone says it: yes, we’re talking today about highlights and not live cricket on TV. The question of live cricket returning to the BBC is something we’re keeping under review for the future when the contracts next become available.
Perhaps I’m reading too much into this, but “…something we’re keeping under review for the future” is either a typo or suggests the Beeb are almost certainly going to bid for the rights in 2009. When I first read it, I thought Roger said “keeping under wraps” and it still smacks of that.
A criticism, though. With the greatest respect and understanding of the arduous task a TV scheduler must have, the decision to air the highlights a mere couple of hours before the next day’s play is ridiculous. It’s almost not worth having them at all. If I was just a fan and not writing about the game, I’d still sign up to Sky in spite of the BBC’s highlights gesture.
I remain a fan of the Beeb though. Their website is outstanding; they’ve grasped Web 2.0 and are breaking new ground each year. It’s just a shame that they spend more money on makeover shows like What Donkeys Shouldn’t Wear At Christmas rather than what the public really want: live sport.
Anyway, it’s very much a moot point and outdated too. Sky have it, so get over it. They’re ploughing a lot of money into the English game, too.
1 Comment »Video of Shoaib Akhtar “fiddling” the ball
By Will 4 years ago, at the start of September, 41 Comments »
He’s been cleared today. I’m not making any comment. Here’s the video for you to make your minds up. (click here if you can’t see it below)
The issue is more to do with Sky, than Shoaib…
41 Comments »The clapping seal
By Will 4 years ago, at the start of June, 3 Comments »
Jenny, my colleage at Cricinfo, has had two rather good days in the past week. Firstly, during the final Test at Trent Bridge, she spent a day with David Gower, Nasser Hussain, Ian Botham and the other Sky commentators. Naturally she’s in love with every single one of them (our ears are bleeding) but they all sound like great fun (and they have a lot of fun, too). David Lloyd (“Bumble”) is as you would expect him to be: sharp, constantly witty and an allround top bloke. Anyway I can’t spoil her piece; she’s writing it up and it’ll be published at Cricinfo quite soon.
As if that couldn’t be topped, today she faced an over (I think) at Shane Warne! And interviewed him and other stuff. So that’s two fairly cool (and unique) things you should keep an eye out on Cricinfo.
3 Comments »Cricket AM on Sky
By Will 4 years ago, mid-May, 6 Comments »
I nervously anticipate Sky’s Cricket AM Saturday morning show, which starts this weekend. It could be a winner, or a right winner. Am I at all swayed by the notion of an ex Blue Peter presenter fronting the programme? (sorry, but I am! “Here’s one I made earlier” and all that)
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