Western Morning News Article on Cricket and Terrestrial TV

Today sees the culmination of the greatest Ashes series for more than twenty years. Whatever the outcome, memories of the dramatic finishes to the last three tests will be embedded in our national consciousness. New role models of excellence and sportsmanship have emerged for our children.

England’s rise to peak performance has occurred during the last seven years of Channel 4’s test coverage. This summer more than 8 million viewers have tuned in to their superb live coverage. Andrew Flintoff is the favourite to win the BBC sports personality of the year - the last cricketer to win was Ian Botham in 1981.

Thanks to free-to-air coverage, this special sporting event has been a shared national experience that has lifted the nation. Test cricket is special in that the action unfolds over four or five days. It relies on people being able to dip in and out of the coverage, but it is important for viewers to be able to stay in touch with the developing narrative.

With this popular resurgence, it is a strange time to bid farewell to free-to-air live coverage of Test cricket and prepare for a future exclusively on pay TV. How have we arrived at a position whereby the vast majority of these new cricket viewers will be unable to watch any live cricket on television next year?

Last December, at the height of the football season, the England and Wales Cricket Board sold the television rights to all live cricket to BSkyB for the next four years – that’s county, one-day internationals and test cricket. All forms of cricket will only be available live on subscription channels costing at least £380 a year. This is in contrast to other major sports such as football, rugby, tennis and golf where there is a combination of satellite and terrestrial coverage.

It has now become clear that the recent deal breaches an understanding in 1998 between the then Culture Secretary Chris Smith and ECB president Lord MacLaurin, when Test cricket was removed from the list of protected events on the understanding that the ECB would ensure that the majority of tests remained available free-to-air. For seven years, this worked well with Channel 4 and Sky Sports sharing international and county cricket coverage.

As a new member of the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee, I have written to the Chairman requesting that the committee look into this issue and hold those responsible to account. In addition I have written to the Secretary of State Tessa Jowell to call on her to intervene in the public interest to enforce the undertaking by her predecessor.

I am also joining with many colleagues across all parties to call on Sports Minister Richard Caborn to broker an urgent deal between the terrestrial broadcasters and Sky to ensure that terrestrial viewers can still see some test cricket next summer – similar to the shared live coverage of England football matches.

The ECB say that the deal they have struck with Sky will allow for Test highlights to be shown on Channel 5. But for many in Devon and Cornwall, and elsewhere, this is not a channel available to all terrestrial viewers.

The real issue is that a highlights programme is no substitute for the drama and tension of live Test cricket. This is what has drawn in millions of new viewers this summer and has led directly to an increased interest in people wanting to play the game. Local cricket clubs are benefiting from this injection of new blood and it is the grassroots teams that feed the counties and widen the pool from which the England selectors pick the best to represent their country.

The question many are asking is where is the vision for the future of the game? How does restricting the audience help promote the game to the next generation of players? The criticism of the ECB is that they have put at risk the long term growth and development of cricket in this country for a short-term financial gain.

If the situation does not change, as soon as Parliament re-assembles in October, I will join moves to secure an enquiry into cricket broadcasting rights and the way in which cricket coverage in its entirety was sold to a single pay-tv broadcaster.

If a partnership deal cannot be brokered by the Sports Minister in the coming weeks, there will be no alternative but to restore Test cricket to the A-list of protected events just as the Australian government did last year in order to maintain their long-term strength as a cricketing nation.

After all, if the Ashes tests with their compelling viewing cannot be on a list of protected national events, then what was the point of the list?

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