aditya123
National Board President
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2003
- Location
- Mumbai
- Online Cricket Games Owned
- Don Bradman Cricket 14 - Xbox 360
- Don Bradman Cricket 14 - Xbox One
Cricket in India was once the most accessible sport on Indian television.
There was a time not long ago when we could get all matches (including the Pura Cup and English County season) on T.V .
But all this has changed now. Channels are now becoming more and more inaccesible to the viewing public which makes me wonder why they were ever launched.
It all started with Neo Sports launched by Nimbus and I still do not know whether anyone other than the Nimbus guys actually do get to watch it (either on DTH or on cable).
ESPNSTAR, the Murdroch owned group which was the most professional of all Indian sports channels was one channel along with Ten Sports which was easily accessible till the recently concluded England-West Indies Test Series.
However all that has changed now that ESPNSTAR have launched a 24-hr cricket channel of their own just before the start of the England-West Indies ODIs .
This channel will apparently air all the cricket that ESPNSTAR has rights to and that is were things get bleak.
The India-England Series,The Twenty20 WC,The Tour to Australia in the coming months will be `exclusively`on STAR CRICKET.
That is when I decided to phone the cable operator today,only to get the bad news confirmed. He has said that cable operators across Mumbai wont be subscribing for the channel due to the high subscription fees(as high as Rs.28)
Quite Ironic because we will be playing our most important series in the coming months and it won`t be on air (for most of us). In all the mess and the tussle between the cable operator and the Television Channels, it is the consumer which suffers.
This is a part of the tragedy called `Indian Cricket` and its commercialization.
I wonder where all this will lead to. The popularity of any sport depends on its coverage on TV and all this cannot be good for the sport itself.
Coming back to the point, I desperately want to catch the India-England test series, which I understand , won`t be on DD as well.
If STARCRICKET is available on TATASky, which I presume will be , I still consider the option of moving to TATA.
There was a time not long ago when we could get all matches (including the Pura Cup and English County season) on T.V .
But all this has changed now. Channels are now becoming more and more inaccesible to the viewing public which makes me wonder why they were ever launched.
It all started with Neo Sports launched by Nimbus and I still do not know whether anyone other than the Nimbus guys actually do get to watch it (either on DTH or on cable).
ESPNSTAR, the Murdroch owned group which was the most professional of all Indian sports channels was one channel along with Ten Sports which was easily accessible till the recently concluded England-West Indies Test Series.
However all that has changed now that ESPNSTAR have launched a 24-hr cricket channel of their own just before the start of the England-West Indies ODIs .
This channel will apparently air all the cricket that ESPNSTAR has rights to and that is were things get bleak.
The India-England Series,The Twenty20 WC,The Tour to Australia in the coming months will be `exclusively`on STAR CRICKET.
That is when I decided to phone the cable operator today,only to get the bad news confirmed. He has said that cable operators across Mumbai wont be subscribing for the channel due to the high subscription fees(as high as Rs.28)
Quite Ironic because we will be playing our most important series in the coming months and it won`t be on air (for most of us). In all the mess and the tussle between the cable operator and the Television Channels, it is the consumer which suffers.
This is a part of the tragedy called `Indian Cricket` and its commercialization.
I wonder where all this will lead to. The popularity of any sport depends on its coverage on TV and all this cannot be good for the sport itself.
Coming back to the point, I desperately want to catch the India-England test series, which I understand , won`t be on DD as well.
If STARCRICKET is available on TATASky, which I presume will be , I still consider the option of moving to TATA.
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