The ‘irreplaceable’ commentator has departed with his Wooster-ish catchphrases yet the TMS box is still a rich mix of cricketing lifeSo long then, my dear old thing. After 45 years on Test Match Special, Henry Blofeld has, to borrow one of his own favourite phrases, put his cue back on the rack. English cricket will never sound quite the same again. It hardly could, given the unique, deep Cholmondley-Warner timbre of his voice. From now on, then, TMS listeners will find there are far fewer pigeons strutting around the outfield, and not nearly so many jet planes flying overhead or bright red busses driving by the boundary walls. The flipside being that they’re rather more likely to know exactly who...
Until recently it was easier to watch the Premier League in the US than the UK. But now viewers must pay to watch many of the games onlineAs the executive director of Upper 90, which sells soccer shoes, jerseys, apparel, equipment and teamwear online and at four stores in and near New York, Zac Rubin has a keen interest in the Premier League’s success in the United States. It is literally a part of business: store customers can watch any match they want on TV while shopping.NBC will continue to air 250 of the Premier League’s 380 matches live on any number its broadcast and cable channels – including NBC Sports and CNBC – this season. It is what is...
The corporation stepped in to replace Sky at short notice – would it have been better to sit back and allow a blackout?Criticisms of the BBC’s live coverage of the US PGA Championship were as immediate as they were predictable. Peter Alliss, again, was widely described as an anachronism, representing the dated image golf is trying desperately hard to leave behind. That elements of the BBC’s broadcast were only available via red button, or without high definition, was another cause for social media screaming. The slightest gaffe was met with widespread derision and insistence of incompetence.Criticism of the coverage was inevitable from the moment a BBC deal for the Quail Hollow major was confirmed. It was easy to infer minds...
State broadcaster’s deal to show more than 100 hours of live cricket each summer from 2020 is well merited and long overdue, according to a former director of BBC SportIt is unalloyed good news that live cricket is coming back to BBC television. One of the great national sports is reunited with the one broadcaster that can make big events bigger – and get the whole of the country talking about what they watch. The story of the falling-out between the England and Wales Cricket Board and the BBC feels, happily, to be in the far distant past.It was two decades ago that live test cricket moved from the corporation to Channel 4 – which, by common consent, did an...
Leaked documents suggest the ECB wants some cricket back on free-to-air television but this feels like attempting to squeeze toothpaste back into the tubeDo not expect a mighty mea culpa from the England and Wales Cricket Board but now we have an implicit acknowledgement that the decision, taken more than a decade ago, not to insist upon some cricket remaining on free-to-air television was contrary to the best interests of the game.Alongside the promise of more money came assurances in 2005 that viewing habits were changing so rapidly that cricket’s removal from terrestrial television would not be damaging to the sport. As indicated by the viewing figures for rugby’s home internationals, which were available to all in the winter, those...