Gideon Haigh fillets Nine:
Oh, for a Kerry Packer: while cricket marches on, Nine marks time
Televised cricket in Australia is overdue another such refreshment, and little about Nine at present suggests it is culturally equipped to provide it. What the network needs perhaps is more people thinking like Kerry Packer rather than simply trying to sound like him.
It is almost impossible for me to concieve of anyone else having the rights, even though I can remember when the ABC televised the cricket. Nine also have that stupid "last bid" clause in their contract. So, despite Nine's finances being down the toilet, I reckon they will retain the rights with my prediction based tenuously on Gideon's point that Stakeholders & his chummies at CA kepts shtum when McNamara potted Bailey.
It is in the Australian, so you need to be signed up. If you are not signed up, get stuffed.
This summer has tested my patience with Nine. I've got to the point where they lose it. Ideally what will happen is that we'll get tests on Foxtel and FTA. Cricket fans with Foxtel would watch Foxtel, which would try and emulated Sky UK's excellent coverage in England, and the FTA channel would tick the box of taking cricket to the masses.
Posted by: Oracle | Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 12:49 PM
Sounds like a good call to me.
It should go to Seven because they would be just as aggravating as Nine, and any idea it might end up at Ten is plainly risible.
Has Nine's coverage seemed try hard this summer? Maybe there is even a note of desperation in the way they have thrown their coverage at viewers.
I wonder if McNamara's sledge of Bailey was a sign Nine are smug in the knowledge they have won, or "fuck you" in the knowledge they have lost.
Posted by: Tony Tea | Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 12:57 PM
Did anyone see the intro to yesterday's match? Apparently the evening's play was going to consist of David Warner v a bowling machine. Slater was over the moon as he'd rather watch that than a real match anyday.
Posted by: lou | Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 07:44 PM
Slater sums up the Nine coverage by caring more about whether Cow Corner is going to switch hit than the result of the match. Typical Sydney attitude, if it's not a circus sideshow event then they're not into it.
Posted by: m0nty | Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 09:44 AM
Nine will be spitting chips they had to cut to the News just as things were hotting up.
Posted by: Tony Tea | Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 10:30 AM
"It is in the Australian, so you need to be signed up. If you are not signed up, get stuffed."
Copy the headline [select the text, CTRL+C] and paste it into a Google search [CTRL+V] and come on in for the big win. You get to read the full story without the pay wall popping up.
News.com.au knows when stories are linked from other sites. Not sure why links from Google are exceptions, but this trick has worked for me every time in the year[?] since subscription-only stories appeared.
If the columnist is syndicated [like my boy Gideon] then you will always get the choice to read the story from sites other than those owned by news.com.au. British and Indian newspapers in the case of cricket. Duh.
This little loophole will get closed one day. Me blabbing about it on the world-famous AGBCricket isn't going to help.
Posted by: 1337 haX0r Big Ramifications | Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 01:51 PM
Spot on with this statement Gideon! Why must they have 3 on at once? Sky UK have the 3rd man feature - that works quite well.
"With three of them on duty at once, they talk incessantly, oblivious to that sage advice of their elder statesman Richie Benaud: "Don't say anything unless you can add to the picture."
Posted by: Doc | Wednesday, February 06, 2013 at 11:00 AM