English cricket needs television but television needs England to do better

John Stern13-Jun-2003English cricket needs television but television needs England to do better. In the July issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly John Stern examines the delicate business of rights, prices and programmingWhen Channel 4 said they were not showing highlights of the 2002-03 Ashes series there was sufficient viewer backlash to make them change their minds. At around the same time last autumn WCM revealed that the start time for Test cricket in England was to be brought forward to 10.45am – at the request of C4. That start time may yet get earlier.When it was clear that the World Cup would have no presence – even in highlight form – on terrestrial television, C4 received around a dozen complaints. When they went off air as scheduled at 6pm on the second day of the first Test against Zimbabwe, there was some mild discontent. Yet when C4 stayed with the cricket the following day until the finish at around 7.40pm, they received more than 100 complaints about the rescheduling of a documentary on Sir Edmund Hillary.So who calls the shots? Who wears the trousers in this increasingly important marriage between cricket and TV? Is it the broadcasters? The ECB? The players? Or the viewers?English cricket first got into bed with C4 in 1999 in a three-year deal that took Test cricket away from the BBC for the first time. This was a joint deal between C4 and Sky, who had the rights to show one Test a summer for the first time plus the increasing volume of England’s one-day cricket. This deal was made possible only by government legislation (helped by ECB lobbying) to remove Test cricket from what are termed the "crown jewels" of televised sport, which include the FA Cup final and Wimbledon tennis. These events must be shown live on free-to-air television. But the ECB felt it had a product to sell which was undervalued, hence its desire to have Test cricket removed from the A-list. It is now classified as a B-list sport of which the Independent Television Commission requires only highlights to be shown on free-to-air.On May 18, 2001 – a day the ECB described as "a great day for cricket" – a three-year extension to the deal with C4 and Sky was signed and valued at £150 million, which was a 57% increase on the original deal. Whichever broadcasters seal the next deal, it seems inconceivable they will pay anywhere near that £150 million. The collapse of ITV Digital last year indicated how over-valued sports TV rights had become. The combined revenue from broadcast rights and sponsorship made up 87% of the ECB’s gross profits in 2002.C4’s coverage of Test cricket has won many awards and is widely admired. Yet there are suggestions that C4 are losing interest in the game and may not bid for the rights again when the deal ends in 2005. Last autumn David Brook, the director of strategy and development whose passion for cricket was the driving force behind bringing Test coverage to C4, left the channel.The summer of 2001 – with an Ashes series in which England were expected to compete strongly – was supposed to bring home the bacon for C4. It did not. Viewing figures peaked at 1.9 million for the Lord’s Test against Pakistan – the first of the summer – and fell consistently below that level as England were beaten heavily by Australia."Audiences for the Ashes were very good in the circumstances," says David Kerr, C4’s head of sport. The circumstances to which he refers are the fact that England continue to be ritually flogged every time they play Australia.When England beat West Indies in a thrilling early-evening finish on the Saturday of the Lord’s Test in 2000, C4 hit a high of five million viewers. There are only so many people who will watch Test cricket on TV regardless of England’s fortunes. In the Lord’s Test against Zimbabwe C4’s audience peaked at around two million on the Saturday evening when England completed their victory. Overall the first Test brought in an average of 1.1 million viewers ("very pleasing," according to Kerr) which was not far off the numbers who watched the Ashes Tests of 2001. For C4 to justify their expenditure on cricket (around 3-4% of their overall programming budget) they need England to do better. More specifically they need England to do better against Australia.Kerr dismisses suggestions that C4 are losing interest in cricket and will not be drawn on cricket’s next TV deal which the ECB would hope to have in place by the end of the 2005 summer at the latest. "It’s far too early to speculate on that," says Kerr. "We’re concentrating on making cricket as popular as possible over the next few years."There is a suspicion that the BBC are still smarting from the loss of Test cricket to C4. Whenever C4 leave the cricket to go racing there is normally a BBC employee ready with a barbed comment in the press box. There seems to be some mythical perfection attributed to the BBC’s televised coverage of cricket. They would interrupt it for news bulletins and viewers would miss the start of the second session for Neighbours. And from mid-June onwards Test matches would jostle for position with tennis, racing and golf.The BBC declined to talk on the record to WCM about the future of cricket on TV, which might indicate a lack of interest (cricket was dismissed with one quip by Gary Lineker during the BBC’s sports review of the year last December) or it could just be that they are being deliberately cagey as part of a long-term strategy. They might be hoping that C4 lose interest and they can buy back the rights from a worried ECB at a knock-down price. Industry rumour suggests that the BBC may no longer view cricket as a viable sport for television because of the time it takes and the weather. But Mark Sibley, the ECB’s new commercial director, says: "There is a new sense of sporting value at the BBC and they seem more competitive in the way they go out and bid for sports."Test cricket is a nightmare for TV schedulers. The hours of play are uncertain as is the weather. Many purists already consider that TV exerts too much influence on the staging of cricket, yet the decision to start at 10.45am is only the tip of the iceberg. The idea was to stop C4’s cricket coverage eating into the lucrative (for advertisers) early-evening schedules containing the teen soap opera Hollyoaks and their flagship news programme. Do not be surprised if Tests in England start as early as 10am before long. C4 are also unhappy about slow over-rates which cause a day’s play to over-run. "We’re looking for improvements," says Kerr. "It is in everybody’s interests for the game to be played in a pacier way. Cricket should be as compact an experience as possible."If the BBC did show Test cricket again, they might see it as an opportunity to schedule some of it on their digital channels. The other left-field option is the possibility of Channel Five using a bid for the rights to establish a credibility – and ABC1 advertising – that has hitherto eluded them.The ECB could, if it wanted to, sell all the live rights to Sky. The penetration of cable and satellite TV has reached around 40% of UK homes. But this seems unlikely. "It is crucial to the well-being of the game for the ECB to have a terrestrial broadcast partner," says Sibley. "But we recognise the value of what Sky do for cricket and there is a certain amount of money that we do need to receive from TV rights; it is about getting the right balance." Sibley adds: "The mix might be different going forward."There may be a lesson to be learned from rugby league where fraught negotiations are ongoing for a new TV deal. In 1995 rugby league sold all its rights for domestic league and international matches to Sky. But now there is a move to bring Great Britain internationals back to the BBC in the hope that it can breed a new generation of national – rather than regional – heroes like Ellery Hanley and Shaun Edwards. The profile of rugby union’s Six Nations Championship was raised considerably when England’s matches returned to the BBC.Maybe a cut-price TV deal would not be such a bad thing. Maybe what cricket really needs is less not more television money so that the counties finally wake up and enter the real world.Click here to subscribe to Wisden Cricket Monthly

The July 2003 edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly is on sale at all good newsagents in the UK and Ireland, priced £3.25.