{"id":3435,"date":"2013-11-19T15:18:53","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T15:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/?p=3435"},"modified":"2013-11-19T16:38:49","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T16:38:49","slug":"ashes-highlights-this-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/ashes-highlights-this-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashes Highlights This Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Returning to a familiar topic, I note that there are no Ashes highlights on Channel 5 this winter. Instead they’ll be broadcast on Pick TV<\/a> – Sky’s free-to-air channel available on most platforms including Freeview. They’ll be broadcast nightly at 10pm, just before play begins the following day. Live coveragewill of course be on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

I shall just note that they’re not being broadcast on Channel 5 – I can only assume because either they cost too much for Richard Desmond to stump up, or they were not offered to Channel 5 at all. Instead Sky will put them out on the channel that’s the home of Motorway Patrol and Border Security (OK – they do show the odd decent show too).<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that highlights of England Test matches overseas are not a Listed Event<\/a> and so Sky is well within its rights to do this.<\/p>\n

But in case you’re thinking, “Well it’s on Pick TV which is free to air, so everyone can watch anyway,” then think again. <\/p>\n

The Freeview multiplex that Pick TV is broadcast on is available to a little under 90% of Freeview homes. Just over 10% of Freeview homes are unable to receive Pick TV. Not terrible, but not up to the coverage of public service broadcasters which are around 98.5%.<\/p>\n

If you don’t offer access to a broad audience for your sport, then do not expect too much from the next generation. Cricket, as I’ve said<\/a> many<\/a> times<\/a> before<\/a>, is treading down this path, with no free-to-air cricket available in the UK.<\/p>\n

Note: I write this as someone who watches cricket, and subscribes to Sky Sports. And I’ve updated the numbers to properly reflect Pick TV’s Freeview coverage. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Returning to a familiar topic, I note that there are no Ashes highlights on Channel 5 this winter. Instead they’ll be broadcast on Pick TV – Sky’s free-to-air channel available on most platforms including Freeview. They’ll be broadcast nightly at 10pm, just before play begins the following day. Live coveragewill of course be on Sky […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[75,77,73,76,68,555,74],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3435"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3438,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3435\/revisions\/3438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}