Sport on the telly
We all know that Sky has done its bit for sport - for good and ill. Those who choose to pay for the premium sports services that Sky offers undoubtedly enjoy very fine coverage of a wide variety of sports.
However, for those of us who do not like to pay £600 a year for telly, there is little regular coverage outside of football.
Yesterday, there were two semi-finals played. Had they been FA Cup related there would have been an almighty uproar that there were no highlights shown on any terrestrial channel. Because they were cricket matches, no one will bat an eyelid. It's sad really, cricket is supposed to be the second most popular game in this country and yet, during the season, it does not warrant a weekly programme along the lines of Match of the Day.
Channel Five broadcast very enjoyable highlights from England test matches, but there is a whole county structure in place that never gets any real coverage. Can you honestly see Match of the Day only being broadcast when the national sides play, totally ignoring the weekly Premiership games? No, neither can I.
The cricket twenty20 cup is about to get underway: the fastest and (for those a little unsure of cricket) most exciting form of the game, but I doubt there will be any coverage other than, perhaps, late night highlights of the final.
Now, I've banged on about cricket as it's a particular love of mine, but what about those other sports that this country has successful participants/teams in: badminton, squash, etc. So much good sport that just doesn't get the airtime it deserves.
We all know that Sky have paid big bucks for the exclusive (god, I hate that word) rights to almost all live sport in the UK, but not to have any sort of highlights show on freeview is unforgivable.
Those of us who enjoy sports outside football would like to watch some of it. More importantly however, the telly can play such a big role in getting kids interested in sports and I'm sure it helps in raising their interest in participating rather than just watching. We have a large number of digital channels available, why can't we use that bandwidth to show something beyond the norm?
However, for those of us who do not like to pay £600 a year for telly, there is little regular coverage outside of football.
Yesterday, there were two semi-finals played. Had they been FA Cup related there would have been an almighty uproar that there were no highlights shown on any terrestrial channel. Because they were cricket matches, no one will bat an eyelid. It's sad really, cricket is supposed to be the second most popular game in this country and yet, during the season, it does not warrant a weekly programme along the lines of Match of the Day.
Channel Five broadcast very enjoyable highlights from England test matches, but there is a whole county structure in place that never gets any real coverage. Can you honestly see Match of the Day only being broadcast when the national sides play, totally ignoring the weekly Premiership games? No, neither can I.
The cricket twenty20 cup is about to get underway: the fastest and (for those a little unsure of cricket) most exciting form of the game, but I doubt there will be any coverage other than, perhaps, late night highlights of the final.
Now, I've banged on about cricket as it's a particular love of mine, but what about those other sports that this country has successful participants/teams in: badminton, squash, etc. So much good sport that just doesn't get the airtime it deserves.
We all know that Sky have paid big bucks for the exclusive (god, I hate that word) rights to almost all live sport in the UK, but not to have any sort of highlights show on freeview is unforgivable.
Those of us who enjoy sports outside football would like to watch some of it. More importantly however, the telly can play such a big role in getting kids interested in sports and I'm sure it helps in raising their interest in participating rather than just watching. We have a large number of digital channels available, why can't we use that bandwidth to show something beyond the norm?
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