[Shootmaster_44]

I noticed that ATN has the rights to the Cricket World Cup. I am interested in Canada's games and I cannot find a schedule posted anywhere. On ATN's website it says on PPV, but I was curious if they were planning on either replaying or splitting off Canada's games elsewhere? I'd like to see Canada's games (well PVR them if I pick up a PVR) and just need to know what channel I will need for it.

Seems strange that ATN would put them all on Pay Per View, when they have ATN Cricket Plus (and apparently a second cricket channel that isn't available to me). Since International cricket will grind to a halt during the World Cup, wouldn't it make the most sense to put games on either their main network or their cricket channels? I don't believe any of the games will overlap, so it could be done easily enough.

 

[NB Josh]

It makes most sense to put them on PPV because that is how they make money on them. The rights to Canada's domestic games are probably so high that it only makes sense to put them on PPV because the viewership isn't there to make money off putting them on CricketPlus.

 

[Shootmaster_44]

Though if ATN did the same thing as Rogers did with SNet One, it could increase subscribership to the Cricket channel. I realize a Netherlands/Zimbabwe match would only make money if shown on PPV. But you'd think Canada matches would bring out the casual fans like myself that would cause the rights to be paid for through the $18.99 subscription fee on the Cricket channel.

That said, if PPV is the only way to watch it, I hope I can order it and have my PVR record it. Seems to me Canada plays mostly at 2 AM Alberta time, since it is very easy to keep my head in the sand about the result, I can tape it and watch it later. I wonder if ATN plans to have the matches in HD?

I wonder which tournament draws better ratings? The Cricket World Cup or the Rugby World Cup? I suppose this is comparing apples to lugnuts though. The Rugby World Cup is shown on Setanta, so rugby fans can tune into multiple games for the $15 (or whatever their cable company charges) per month whereas if the Cricket World Cup is strictly PPV, some matches will get high ratings like India and Pakistan and some will have barely anyone watching like Zimbabwe.

 

[Calgarylankan]

2011 Cricket World Cup

I called Bell and they said full package is $199 includes HD transmission for folks with HD service. They have separate prices for semis + finals, I think it is $59 and $49. Still debating to buy or stick to free or cheaper options via Internet. TVNSPORTS has $39 package and willow tv has $129 package.

 

[Shootmaster_44]

That's expensive. The only games I am truly interested in are the Canada games. So I don't anticipate being interested in watching the games (I'll pay attention to the scores and find highlights online) beyond the first round.

 

[Calgarylankan]

2011 Cricket World Cup Canada Coverage

Cut and paste from email I received from Bell:

Please be advised that The ICC 2011 World Cup premium sports package is featuring live Cricket matches, one day international (ODI) matches and up to 49 matches at 7 hours per match.

Please be guided with the following information:

Schedule:
Start Sell Date 4-Feb-11
Package Start Date 19-Feb-11
Semi Finals March 29 and 30, 2011
Final 2-Apr-11

Price:
A la carte for each Semi Final $69
@ la carte Final $99
Full package price A one time charge of $199

Channel information:
Channel 399 - A la carte (Semi Finals and Final ONLY)
Channels 736 and 737 - Full Package

 

[Calgarylankan]

2011 Cricket World Cup Canada Coverage

More news....

Telus Optik website says each match is $19.99.

http://telus.com/content/tv/optik/clients/pay_per_view.jsp

Shaw Direct - which is former StarChoice has each match for $9.99

http://www.shawdirect.ca/english/ppv/events.asp

SaksTel - $19.99 per match

http://www.sasktel.com/personal/max-entertainment-services/live-event-pay-per-view/live-pay-per-view-listing.html

No pricing from Rogers and Shaw Cable yet. Also it is not very clear about HD transmission. When I call Bell, they said the price includes HD. Bell seems to be the best deal if you intend to cover the entire tournament with so many sleepless nights. On the other hand $19.99 per match seems to be rip off.

 

[Andrew1]

t makes most sense to put them on PPV because that is how they make money on them.

Rant Warning

If the governing bodies of sports like cricket and rugby were genuinely interested in making their sports more popular worldwide (as they always claim) they would sell marquee events cheaper to get as many eyeballs as possible.

I live in an area full of British people yet no one I can think of follows either cricket or rugby anymore because they've lost touch with these sports. Many of the older expats also lost touch with soccer for decades - 60s, 70s, and 80s - due to lack of coverage but got back into the sport because they were able to watch again without much effort in the 90s. The children of expats now follow soccer but not cricket and rugby. I use to work with a number of Indian expats and first generation Indian-Canadians and I don't recall any interest in cricket despite the sport's extraordinary popularity with Indians. Even in Britain the last home victory in the Ashes was a blip on the radar because most Brits didn't have the channel showing most matches. Rugby had a chance to award this year's WC to Japan - population 125 million, more than much of the rugby loving world put together - instead went to safe choice New Zealand.

As bad as FIFA and Bernie Ecclestone of F1 are today they did a good job decades ago laying the groundwork that has made their sports as universally popular (therefore driving TV demand) as they are today. Instead of using WCs to promote their sports cricket and rugby are governed by smug parochial-minded people who are only interested in short term cash flow. That is why they are not only failing to break new markets but are falling further behind even in countries where the sports have always been popular.

 

[mungar]

Shaw Cable - Pricing for ICC Cricket World Cup

Pricing:
• Each game is $9.99
• Semi-Finals: $39.99 (each game)
• Finals: $49.99

There is no 'full' package available.

 

[Shootmaster_44]

Shaw Cable - Pricing for ICC Cricket World Cup

Pricing:
• Each game is $9.99
• Semi-Finals: $39.99 (each game)
• Finals: $49.99

There is no 'full' package available.

Are these games in HD?

 

[mungar]

All games will be in SD on channel 325 (channel 301 in satellite fed areas).

 

[NB Josh]

Rant Warning

If the governing bodies of sports like cricket and rugby were genuinely interested in making their sports more popular worldwide (as they always claim) they would sell marquee events cheaper to get as many eyeballs as possible.

I agree. The problem is that the ICC thinks they should make as much money off rights in Canada and the US as they do in Australia and the UK. In the UK a channel like Sky Sports will gladly pay a premium for the Cricket World Cup, just like TSN would for the World Junior Hockey here. Here it isn't even close to worth it for the "mainstream" channels or even Setanta or ATN because the ad revenue wouldn't come close to paying for the rights and the ratings simply make it not worth while.

OTOH, it's easy for CBC or TSN to justify paying for FIFA or F1 considering the ratings are fairly good. Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve certainly helped with F1's popularity in Canada.

 

[Shootmaster_44]

All games will be in SD on channel 325 (channel 301 in satellite fed areas).

That's disappointing, but probably not anything ATN can do about it. My guess is that the feed they have available to them is a network only broadcasting in SD.

So long as the onscreen graphics are readable I am happy. The reason that is a concern is that Gonzaga basketball games on KHQ (Spokane NBC) in SD are unreadable since the signal is an HD signal downgraded to an SD signal.

Some Canadian cricket on TV, is better than no Canadian cricket on TV.

 

[Andrew1]

I agree. The problem is that the ICC thinks they should make as much money off rights in Canada and the US as they do in Australia and the UK. In the UK a channel like Sky Sports will gladly pay a premium for the Cricket World Cup, just like TSN would for the World Junior Hockey here. Here it isn't even close to worth it for the "mainstream" channels or even Setanta or ATN because the ad revenue wouldn't come close to paying for the rights and the ratings simply make it not worth while.

OTOH, it's easy for CBC or TSN to justify paying for FIFA or F1 considering the ratings are fairly good. Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve certainly helped with F1's popularity in Canada.

Sportsnet apparently lost a lot of money broadcasting the 2003 Rugby WC. It was in Australia in the middle of the night as will be this year's tournament.

F1 was not broadcast live on Canadian TV until about 2003 or 2004. TSN justified it because even though it did not get all that many viewers it still got higher ratings than what they normally broadcast in that time slot - 8AM EST. You can bet the house Ecclestone did not charge TSN the same price to broadcast F1 that he charged European channels. When JV entered the sport ratings trebled on TSN so it turned out to be a good investment by the network. Recently France's most popular channel TF1 - more popular there than the big three networks combined are in the USA - was considering turning down F1 rights for 2011 because of the €30 (Euro) price tag. There's no way TSN is paying that much for its 2011 broadcasting rights. It wouldn't make sense for F1 to charge that much to Canada as they'd price themselves out of the market. The ICC and IRB could learn from F1.

 

[Andrew1]

Shaw Cable - Pricing for ICC Cricket World Cup

Pricing:
• Each game is $9.99
• Semi-Finals: $39.99 (each game)
• Finals: $49.99

There is no 'full' package available.

So, does anybody here plan on ordering any of the matches at those prices?

 

[Shootmaster_44]

So, does anybody here plan on ordering any of the matches at those prices?

As far as I know it is the only way to watch Canada play. So I will probably order their matches that happen to fall on weekends, which I believe makes two of them. The weekday matches just don't work for me. If these were on non-PPV, I'd probably tune into the weekday matches at some point.

Any idea if ATN Cricket Plus will show replays of the matches? I somehow doubt they would, but if they did I'd pick up that network.

 

[Shootmaster_44]

Sportsnet apparently lost a lot of money broadcasting the 2003 Rugby WC. It was in Australia in the middle of the night as will be this year's tournament.

F1 was not broadcast live on Canadian TV until about 2003 or 2004. TSN justified it because even though it did not get all that many viewers it still got higher ratings than what they normally broadcast in that time slot - 8AM EST. You can bet the house Ecclestone did not charge TSN the same price to broadcast F1 that he charged European channels. When JV entered the sport ratings trebled on TSN so it turned out to be a good investment by the network. Recently France's most popular channel TF1 - more popular there than the big three networks combined are in the USA - was considering turning down F1 rights for 2011 because of the €30 (Euro) price tag. There's no way TSN is paying that much for its 2011 broadcasting rights. It wouldn't make sense for F1 to charge that much to Canada as they'd price themselves out of the market. The ICC and IRB could learn from F1.

How tape delayed was F1? I remember watching it in 1996 and 1997 on TSN during Jacques Villeneuve's Championship runs and I'm pretty sure they were live then as well. If they were tape delayed it wasn't by any more than a few minutes.

 

[Calgarylankan]

I already have Bell and I am thinking about buying their package for $199. When I spoke to them, they said it will be on HD too, but email I got didn't say it . If it is HD, and if I can record them to my PVR it seems to be the best deal. Just waiting until they have proper ad in the website.

Folks, I did subscribed to TVNSPORTS free test run for last AUS-ENG and PAK - NZ matches. It is pretty good. No buffering, always on. Only thing is they are re-selling Willow TV most probably illegally. So if Willow find a way to block them, that will be the end. Otherwise, TVNSPORTS only cost you $40 and you can watch from anywhere. (even at work, if your boss is not looking over your shoulder)

TVNSports.com
ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Live and On Demand ($39.99)
Live and On Demand Streaming of World Cup 2011
All matches including warm ups
1200Kbps, 800Kbps, 531Kbps streams
Windows Media & Flash
Guaranteed dedicated streaming with no-buffering
Windows, Mac, Android support
7 Days money back guarantee - from start of World Cup!
Free SL vs. WI, PAK vs NZ, and ENG vs. AUS included

 

[Andrew1]

How tape delayed was F1? I remember watching it in 1996 and 1997 on TSN during Jacques Villeneuve's Championship runs and I'm pretty sure they were live then as well. If they were tape delayed it wasn't by any more than a few minutes.

Ooops. I meant 1993 or 1994 not 2003-4. Sorry.

 

[Boca Junior]

So, does anybody here plan on ordering any of the matches at those prices?

Nope, not a chance. But IF Bell was to offer the whole package for $100 I'd be signing up for sure. And I'm sure a lot of others would too. But I'd doubt very many people will fork out $199. I honestly believe Bell would more than double subscriptions if the price was $100.