Sky showing final free to air

[flibbertyjibber]

If England win their semi that is.

Good stuff though, my nan will watch it as she has said she would have watched some of it if she'd been able to. 95 and misses her cricket these days.

 

[Spark]

A proportion of free-to-air cricket access was already set to be reinstated from next year onwards, with the advent of the ECB's new 100-ball competition, after Sky agreed to cede some of its exclusivity to the BBC as part of a new £1.1billion rights deal from 2020-2024.

Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive who brokered the deal, recently described Sky as "cricket's best friend" - the broadcaster has been involved in cricket since 1990 and has been the exclusive partner for home internationals since 2006 - and Plunkett later tweeted to clarify his remarks.

"Sky Cricket are an incredible partner for the game and have been for the past 20+ years," he wrote. "I was asked a question & I never said that it should be on FTA. My words have been twisted & the headline is misleading. The whole country is behind us. Keep believing."

****ing christ the ECB are ****s. "how dare you suggest we broadcast to a wide audience over making more money, you better go out there and backtrack right now"

 

[zorax]

Hey if The 100 was designed purely to get Sky to give up some proper cricket to to FTA, then that would explain a lot.

 

[Cabinet96]

Nice gesture I guess, but the fact they'll only do it if England get there isn't a great look.

 

[BSM]

Nice that the final will be on FTA if England make it there. I don't buy into this idea that the cricket being locked behind a paid subscription has been a bad thing for the game though. For my mind, anyone looking to attribute declining interest and general lack of awareness of the World Cup as being a consequence to the rights being owned by Sky, also then have to explain how the football premier league being placed behind the same paywall has not had a similar impact

 

[zorax]

Nice that the final will be on FTA if England make it there. I don't buy into this idea that the cricket being locked behind a paid subscription has been a bad thing for the game though. For my mind, anyone looking to attribute declining interest and general lack of awareness of the World Cup as being a consequence to the rights being owned by Sky, also then have to explain how the football premier league being placed behind the same paywall has not had a similar impact

Is all of the EPL behind a paywall or do some games get aired on FTA?

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Is all of the EPL behind a paywall or do some games get aired on FTA?

Shared by Sky and BT last season so all pay tv.

Next season Amazon have some.

 

[Borges]

Free to air! This is why the ECB is so gung ho about the Hundred! All hail the Hundred! The saviour of English cricket has started working even before it has arrived.

 

[morgieb]

Nice that the final will be on FTA if England make it there. I don't buy into this idea that the cricket being locked behind a paid subscription has been a bad thing for the game though. For my mind, anyone looking to attribute declining interest and general lack of awareness of the World Cup as being a consequence to the rights being owned by Sky, also then have to explain how the football premier league being placed behind the same paywall has not had a similar impact

FA Cup's still on FTA, so are the internationals IIRC.

 

[GIMH]

FA Cup's still on FTA, so are the internationals IIRC.

Some FA Cup is, but not all. I think it's the same with the internationals too. Nations League was definitely on Sky.

Amazon getting involved in the Prem is interesting. The whole 'buy this channel' dynamic just seems archaic to me in this day and age.

I mean selfishly I hope Prem football becomes as expensive and inaccessible as possible but hey ho

 

[BSM]

FA Cup's still on FTA, so are the internationals IIRC.

They are but the actually premier league stuff, and champions league for that matter, are locked behind paid subscriptions; Sky and BT sport respectively.

My point is that the perceived declining interest in the game is not a consequence of some people not being subscribed to the channels that show the content. Rather, there's just a general lax interest in Cricket which means there aren't huge numbers who end up watching it. Theoretically, the sport is exposed to the same huge audience in the UK that the premier league has, but the interest isn't necessarily the same. If paid subscriptions were so catastrophic for the sport then we would see similar affects on the other sports that are almost exclusively aired on those channels too. Admittedly you still get football on FTA, with comparatively no cricket at all, but the main attraction of the sport is almost always only open to those who have paid for channel subscriptions

 

[Spark]

Cricket is also not football, at least with regards to this. You are actually supposed to go down and watch your local club play each weekend, that's not remotely equivalent to the national team in cricket being the dominant method of exposure.

 

[zorax]

Cricket is also not football, at least with regards to this. You are actually supposed to go down and watch your local club play each weekend, that's not remotely equivalent to the national team in cricket being the dominant method of exposure.

Do you mean go down to watch your local football club or local cricket club?

 

[honestbharani]

Does Sky have a FTA channel where they will show this game? Or do they have to work out a deal with BBC or something?

 

[cpr]

Im not honestly sure they have. BT used to have one that they used for the CL final - though mysteriously my TV couldn't tune it this year, so watched through their Youtube stream, which is always a route for sky too

I know they use Sky One for sports at times, for those customers with the basic package and not sports.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Surely they will just let Channel 4 have it as they have the highlights don't they?

 

[cpr]

Channel 4 will be showing the British GP that day, as its the only F1 race they have live coverage off this year (thanks to.... Sky)

BBC have Wimbledon Mens Final on.

Thank christ we've no decent mens tennis players anymore or I'd need another screen or two.

 

[BSM]

Couldn't they feasibly just make one of their own channels FTA for the WC final timeslot? I seem to remember BT Sport doing a similar thing for the champions league final a few years back

 

[wrongun]

So this means that India losing the SF is good for the growth of cricket in the UK. Good to see a super power potentially helping a struggling country in Cricket. Dhoni once again plays for NRR totally forgetting that it doesn't matter and loses the match for India, but is later applauded because it was for the Spirit of the Game. Well played Sky!

 

[GotSpin]

Nice that the final will be on FTA if England make it there. I don't buy into this idea that the cricket being locked behind a paid subscription has been a bad thing for the game though. For my mind, anyone looking to attribute declining interest and general lack of awareness of the World Cup as being a consequence to the rights being owned by Sky, also then have to explain how the football premier league being placed behind the same paywall has not had a similar impact

Cricket and football are completely different though...