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WI Tour Facing Media Blackout?

Wed, 28/11/2007 - 06:24 — admin

The Barbados Daily Nation reports that there are problems with TV & radio coverage of the West Indies tour, in the Caribbean at least - traditional cricket broadcaster for the region CMC have confirmed they don't hold the broadcast rights for the series, while television station SportMax claim that as they didn't receive notification of the tour until "very late" & that, while discussions were ongoing, their coverage wasn't guaranteed - especially as they were unlikely to make money on the series:

"The issue that we faced is extremely short notice. If we carry it, it will be more for content and less for commercial purposes. It is essentially a cost to carry it. There are also issues picking up signals from Zimbabwe that we've experienced in the past and we're trying to make sure that if we do carry it, there are no issues. The video satellite and link-up is not as easy from Zimbabwe as it is from say Australia or South Africa.

It's about 50-50. It is tough. We already have our content and spending set for the year. This is a cost venture."

Taking those issues in turn: power shortages in Zimbabwe will make any effort to televise the series problematic - I'd like to think ZC will have arranged for generator capacity at the grounds, but that's not the only link in the chain, and it's an unfortunate fact of life in Zimbabwe at the moment. As for the lateness of the tour... yes, the WICB didn't formally confirm the tour until after their security checks were carried out, but the tour has been on the ICC's Future Tours Programme for several years now - surely it's better to work on the assumption that it will go ahead, to avoid being left in this mess when it (shock!) isn't cancelled?

ZC controversially have their own outside broadcast equipment and have in the past provided programming to Zimbabwe Television free of charge, so I expect there will be coverage in Zimbabwe (thereby meeting the ICC's requirement that all matches between Full Member nations must be televised). The problem appears to be seeing that coverage outside Zimbabwe...
Daily Nation - 50-50 chance

Comments

Wed, 28/11/2007 - 06:53 — jimbo (not verified)

Thats such a pity..ZC should be doing its utmost to market this series as international cricket is generally seen to be in the entertainement industry..What a bunch of muppets chingoka and bvute

So chances are the score updates on cricinfo and cricket world will not be ball by ball but be updated Every few hours

Wed, 28/11/2007 - 06:57 — maehara (not verified)

It's possible to get media accreditation to be at the ground, but if I remember CricInfo threw a fit at the cost of the accreditation for the last Bangladesh series & wouldn't pay up. Doesn't rule out anyone else doing it, but I wouldn't count on it.

Wed, 28/11/2007 - 09:25 — farhan (not verified)

well i am not sure what kind of coverage probelm is stated in report , i think star sports r covering this series .i just saw thier advertisement on this series to be covered.so i think we here in pakistan be able to see this series on television.

Wed, 28/11/2007 - 09:45 — maehara (not verified)

Hmmm - no mention of it on their website. It you can find a web link confirming they're covering it, I'd be grateful if you could post it...

Wed, 28/11/2007 - 10:39 — farhan (not verified)

Well after some effort i got it for you. they are going to cover this series live.
30-Nov-2007 12:58 Cricket STAR SPORTS INDIA 2007 WEST INDIES TOUR OF ZIMBABWE (CRICKET)
HARARE, ZIMBABWE Zimbabwe Vs West Indies 1st Odi, 1st Session (L) . that i found from upcoming coverges of star sports india.so all the matches are given at START SPORTS website.i just wonder why did not u get that.
need to check this link.
http://www.espnstar.com/tvtimes/search-tvtimes.cmd

Wed, 28/11/2007 - 10:45 — maehara (not verified)

That's the exact page I'd searched on about 5 minutes before my last comment, and it came back then with nothing found. Bizarre.

Anyway, thank you for making the effort!

Wed, 28/11/2007 - 10:49 — farhan (not verified)

well ITS TEN SPORTS/CROCOMOTOR SERIES surprize first that STARSPORTS MEDIA rivavls of tensports are covering it and why not tensorts. but i cAn confirm now start sports are going to cover it live interesting.that be one worth watching. i think cricinfo may be pointing out towards coverge in WI rather than other parts, may be WI media can't efford to cover this series i dont see problem in other parts especilly in cricket crazy region like asia.

Wed, 28/11/2007 - 10:51 — maehara (not verified)

The CricInfo article was sourced from a Barbados paper - although it seems strange that it won't be covered in the home territory of one of the teams playing, that's hardly ZC's fault (which always seems to be the underlying tone of CricInfo's articles these days).

Nice to see that Star's also rerunning the Australia v Zimbabwe T20 match. I must get myself a copy of that someday... :)

Thu, 29/11/2007 - 04:29 — dr.situ (not verified)

Star cricket will show it in India. Yuppiiiieee

Thu, 29/11/2007 - 20:57 — Tawacricket (not verified)

I think its real disapointing for the likes of Cricinfo to turn a blind eye to the Zim/Windies game. But sooner or later it going to become harder for them to ignore Zimbabwe cause its here to stay and we are only going to get better and start winning games.