View Full Version : Cricket Ticket 2008
I notice the Cricket ticket 2008 schedule has just gone up on the DirecTV website.
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPage.jsp?assetId=1100076
The number of listed series and matches available is well below what it has been for the last few years. I don't have the details for 2007 available anymore, but I recall the total cost if all series were subscribed to separately was ~ $750! There must have been at least 10 different series, probably totaling over 20 test matches and 50 ODI's. The totals for 2008, (after excluding those from current series that were part of the 2007 package) includes only 9 tests and 30 ODI's.
The description that Cricket Ticket provides "the complete full season of matches from Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, West Indies, Sri Lanka and South Africa" no longer seems to be true, as series scheduled for the West Indies in March and May are not included, nor are those from Australia and South Africa at the end of 2008
Does anyone have news on the status of rights from series from these countries? I recall that when DirecTV got into cricket, most of their rights agreements were for 4 years. Therefore, they must be ending about now. I had long suspected cricket only came to DirecTV because of the influence of Murdoch/NewsCorp, and had feared that now they're gone, cricket might go also.
Will all cricket in the US be reverting back to Dish Network and their new Zee Sports Channel, or is this simply just another case of DirecTV not knowing what is going on with their cricket programming??
Thanks,
I also saw the new Cricket Ticket schedule and had the same concerns.
On a somewhat separate note, in watching the Australia-India Test matches, they were advertising for the upcoming T20 match on 2/1/08 to be Australia Channel 9's first HD cricket broadcast. I will email D* to ask, but does anyone know the likelihood of D* carrying it in HD? That would be awesome!
I found this bit on the West Indies web site, so it would appear that contracts are up in the air.
http://www.windiescricket.com/index.cfm?objectid=D485637F-D497-BF8E-BADB3DAE906A5F39&pageid=3009B53D-EECE-E2B4-07D0088623359A51&thispageid=3009B5DB-98CF-EB8E-D6588C46C9B457A3&category=EA1EA792-F2EE-1A31-92F5FB3BDBE0DDB6
crabtrp
01-07-08, 03:49 PM
I also saw the new Cricket Ticket schedule and had the same concerns.
On a somewhat separate note, in watching the Australia-India Test matches, they were advertising for the upcoming T20 match on 2/1/08 to be Australia Channel 9's first HD cricket broadcast. I will email D* to ask, but does anyone know the likelihood of D* carrying it in HD? That would be awesome!Very low likelihood, would be cool though.
Dave151
01-08-08, 11:50 AM
I, too, was shocked at the lack of matches on the Cricket Ticket 2008 package. Here's what I have learned from my research and conversations with DirecTV personnel on the subject.
* I'm not sure that the DirecTV web site was ever correct in saying they had the rights for both West Indies and Zimbabwe. I was not following the sport that closely the last time West Indies hosted a test match (India in the summer of 2006), but they have a prominent schedule this year, hosting Sri Lanka in March-April and Australia in May-June. I haven't seen any DISH announcements about broadcasting those series, so perhaps those rights are what will be decided in the next few months. Since no deal is in place now they couldn't put them in there, but maybe they will be an add-on later.
* There is a series listed by DirecTV as Sri Lanka vs Australia in October. This is an obvious error. Australia is India in October 2008, and I am certain this is part of DISH's contract with the BCCI in India. Perhaps it refers to Bangladesh's visit to Australia in August 2008.
* The International CSR I spoke with said that the package deliberately runs only through October 31st, and it confirms what I suspected about this being the cut-off point of the current rights agreements. In a previous post here somewhere, I noted that all of the major DirecTV contracts were announced in early November 2004, and they were indeed announced as 4-year deals. Having the ending period be at that time makes sense since most countries are just starting their tour schedules then after the winter (in the Southern Hemisphere) break. DirecTV can't sell a package for which they don't have contracts, which means if they do re-sign them in November, my guess is the 2009 package will include 14 months worth of cricket.
* There are also several one-time cricket events in 2008, of which I have heard nothing about US television rights. The first one is the 2008 edition of the Stanford 20/20, which starts in late January. I have seen commercials for this on Cricket Plus, but no mention of it at DirecTV. Then, in April, there is the Indian Premier League, and news reports say that the rights bidding on that will be intense, especially on the subcontinent. Finally, the !CC Champions Trophy will be held in September. My guess is that DirecTV will have that as a separate package - they seem to have had no problem getting the ICC events on.
* I have had many conversations in the past with International CSRs, and they always indicate that their impression from their "higher-ups" is that DirecTV believes that cricket is an integral part of their product line-up. So, I expect they will definitely sign some contracts to have cricket in 2009 and beyond. With DISH having both India and England signed for another 2 years, DirecTV absolutely must have the deal with Australia, or they can no longer even think of calling themselves a provider of cricket. While losing one of either SA, NZ or SrL wouldn't be devastating, losing two of them would be, as there just wouldn't be alot of inventory, and there would be huge stretches between any televised coverage.
I hope this info is helpful to fellow cricket followers - I'll try to find out more from DirecTV when I call to order CT '08.
I, too, was shocked at the lack of matches on the Cricket Ticket 2008 package. Here's what I have learned from my research and conversations with DirecTV personnel on the subject.
....
I hope this info is helpful to fellow cricket followers - I'll try to find out more from DirecTV when I call to order CT '08.
Dave,
Thanks so much. You must have a talent for squeezing so much information about cricket out of the DirecTV folks. Usually, I just get told bogus information like "you can't order those matches because you need the big dish" despite having the matches and ordering info listed on my receiver and not having a big dish!
I agree that DirecTV can't sell packages to matches they don't have the rights to - I just didn't realize most of the other agreements ended at almost exactly the same time, and that the West Indies rights were not allocated yet. Hearing from CSR's who have been led to believe that "cricket is an integral part of their product line-up" is certainly encouraging. Maybe we'll have a bumper year in 2009. Thanks too to the other poster for the link to windiescricket, indicating that rights to matches from the West Indies are still up for grabs, despite test series beginning there in a couple of months time. Now, if only DirecTV could snag the rights to games in England when they next come available...!!
If you hear anymore when ordering CT2008, please keep us in the loop.
Thanks
Dave151
01-25-08, 09:08 AM
Amazingly, the Stanford 20/20 which starts on Saturday is not on pay-per-view, but will be shown live on the CricketPlus channel (which for now is exclusive to DirecTV in North America). I have to say I'm somewhat surprised, but not disappointed, by this. It shows that people are willing to try to break away from the standard PPV model. Does this mean that international cricket coverage will be moving away from all-PPV any time soon? No. But it may be an initial step that sees more of the sport on some sort of broadcast channel or channels.
I subscribed to CricketPlus a la carte a while back. The only matches shown on CP were replays of what I was receiving as part of Cricket Ticket. They other South Asian programming didn't interest me, so I cancelled CP.
A few weeks ago, I saw listings for the New Zealand - Bangladesh Tests on CP. This surprised me, as those matches were not broadcast as part of Cricket Ticket. With the Stanford 20/20 tournament being broadcast, maybe it is time to turn CP back on.
I subscribed to CricketPlus a la carte a while back. The only matches shown on CP were replays of what I was receiving as part of Cricket Ticket. They other South Asian programming didn't interest me, so I cancelled CP.
A few weeks ago, I saw listings for the New Zealand - Bangladesh Tests on CP. This surprised me, as those matches were not broadcast as part of Cricket Ticket. With the Stanford 20/20 tournament being broadcast, maybe it is time to turn CP back on.
I know the New Zealand-Bangladesh tests were not listed as part of the annual Cricket Ticket package for 2007 or 2008. However, they were transmitted by DirecTV in the usual PPV way. They were listed on, I think, channel 117 on my receiver, while Australia-India tests were on 118 (or 119) and South Africa-West Indies games were on 119 (or 118). Presumably, you could have called up and ordered them as a single series purchase - although I didn't.
Dish Network has moved away from cricket as a PPV event, to a 24/7 channel called Zee Sports America, which includes all their live cricket (matches in India, Pakistan and England), plus other programming at other times. Most cricket shown in Canada is also done this way.... only the World Cup and India v Pakistan tests were on PPV there in 2007. Maybe DirecTV will move away from having everything on PPV also, and utilize the CricketPlus channel more wisely. We can only hope (while also hoping CricketPlus eventually moves from 95W to a core satellite!)
I also saw the new Cricket Ticket schedule and had the same concerns.
On a somewhat separate note, in watching the Australia-India Test matches, they were advertising for the upcoming T20 match on 2/1/08 to be Australia Channel 9's first HD cricket broadcast. I will email D* to ask, but does anyone know the likelihood of D* carrying it in HD? That would be awesome!
The match is now in the EPG and no additional channels are shown carrying this match to suggest it might also be broadcast in HD.:(
The match is now in the EPG and no additional channels are shown carrying this match to suggest it might also be broadcast in HD.:(
I guess it will just be compressed back into SD 4:3 format - like the non-HD, widescreen format feed that came from the grounds in Australia during the test series.
Helps everyone look tall and thin!
Dave151
02-05-08, 10:12 AM
Cricket's profile on broadcast TV, rather than PPV, is surely rising,
First comes the Stanford 20/20 being shown on the Cricket Plus channel.
Also, Zee Sports channel (on DISH and on-line) is currently showing the Duleep Trophy matches live from India.
And now, the big surprise. Today I noticed that Cricket Plus channel has on their February schedule a host of matches from South Africa's One-Day domestic season, the MTN Domestic Championship. From the looks of it, they will be showing one match from each match day on a one-day delayed basis, which amounts to 10 matches in all just in February alone.
Safe to say this would not have happened even a few years ago.
crabtrp
02-05-08, 10:16 AM
Just got done watching England's 20/20 win from last night. I would love for coverage of the English domestic season.
Dave151
02-07-08, 09:25 AM
And now, the big surprise. Today I noticed that Cricket Plus channel has on their February schedule a host of matches from South Africa's One-Day domestic season, the MTN Domestic Championship. From the looks of it, they will be showing one match from each match day on a one-day delayed basis, which amounts to 10 matches in all just in February alone.
Safe to say this would not have happened even a few years ago.
And that was a big let-down. The South African matches were on the schedule for about a day, and then when I checked the Cricket Plus website again yesterday, most of the matches were gone. Today's opener was still on the schedule though, but it's supposed to be on TV now, and they are showing a replay of the SA-WI 1st ODI instead.
It would be nice if we could find out what happened, but there is absolutely no way to get in touch with anyone from this channel. What's more, the TIVO and on-line guide routinely are different from what is actually shown, so it is impossible to plan one's viewing and recording. There are times when I really love this channel, and other times when it annoys and frustrates me beyond belief.
BTW, I would not expect that the English Domestic cricket would be on either DirecTV or Cricket Plus. Last year, some matches were included on Willow.tv's "English summer of cricket" package, so I would expect that they might be shown on DISH's ZeeSports channel, if they are shown on TV at all.
TigerFan55
03-27-08, 06:13 PM
I'm so confused about which cricket is on which and how to get what, that it's crazy. I have DTV and cricket ticket for this year is absolutely abysmal. What are the DISH cricket offerings like?
manutd1980
03-27-08, 10:18 PM
does anybody know on which channel/ network would ipl be on?
Ed Campbell
03-28-08, 07:02 AM
does anybody know on which channel/ network would ipl be on?
Setanta has the rights in the UK. I've emailed them to see if they're carrying matches here - no answer, after a week.
manutd1980
04-03-08, 06:45 PM
Any updates??
manutd1980
04-16-08, 06:42 PM
IPL on Cricket Ticket for $59.99...neone if games would be repeated on cricket plus
Were West Indies-Sri Lanka matches carried by anyone? Will the Australia-West Indies matches by carried by either sat service?
Were West Indies-Sri Lanka matches carried by anyone? Will the Australia-West Indies matches by carried by either sat service?
West Indies-Sri Lanka matches were certainly not on DirecTV, and were not carried at all in Canada. I can't say for sure that Dish did not carry them, but they made no mention of them on their cricket site:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/whats_on_dish/pay_per_view/sports/cricket/index.shtml
This has just been updated for the first time since January - and makes no mention of West Indies v Australia.
I did read that West Indies Cricket just signed a new 5-year TV-rights deals with a local provider, Sky Sports in the UK, and TEN Sports (based in Dubai) for the rest of the world.
http://dishnews.blogspot.com/2008/02/ten-sports-renews-west-indies-cricket.html
TEN previously held such rights, and hold similar rights for Pakistan and Sri Lanka home series - which perhaps gives some hope that similar arrangements for distribution into the US as in the recent past might hold up. But I'm yet to see anything anywhere about the Australia-West Indies series on TV in the US or Canada.
ChrisWyso
04-21-08, 03:49 PM
I just recently (a week ago) got into cricket. (Thanks to Wikipedia for filling me in on the gameplay!) I was curious to check the boards here to see if anything DTV was carrying it in HD, but from what I've read, it doesn't look like it, and the schedule isn't that large. Fair assessment?
I've been getting my matches via DL~torrent, and I think the only thing that would change that to getting Cricket-Ticket would be offering the matches in HD.
Thanks all!
-Chris
I just recently (a week ago) got into cricket. (Thanks to Wikipedia for filling me in on the gameplay!) I was curious to check the boards here to see if anything DTV was carrying it in HD, but from what I've read, it doesn't look like it, and the schedule isn't that large. Fair assessment?
I've been getting my matches via DL~torrent, and I think the only thing that would change that to getting Cricket-Ticket would be offering the matches in HD.
Thanks all!
-Chris
Up to now, there has been very little cricket even shot in HD. Australia had one Twenty20 match that was shot in HD, but it was not broadcast in HD on DirecTV. I believe Sky Sports has had some HD cricket matches, but I do not know if Dish Network carried them in HD. I want cricket in HD!:icon_bb:
ChrisWyso
04-22-08, 01:03 PM
Up to now, there has been very little cricket even shot in HD. Australia had one Twenty20 match that was shot in HD, but it was not broadcast in HD on DirecTV. I believe Sky Sports has had some HD cricket matches, but I do not know if Dish Network carried them in HD. I want cricket in HD!:icon_bb:
Yes, it does have to start at the source, and I suppose with DTV being the "end" broadcaster, they have virtually zero control over it, outside of a possible "our viewers are requesting it".
Are they at least shown anamorphic, or do they (DTV) edge crop for broadcast?
-Chris
Yes, it does have to start at the source, and I suppose with DTV being the "end" broadcaster, they have virtually zero control over it, outside of a possible "our viewers are requesting it".
Are they at least shown anamorphic, or do they (DTV) edge crop for broadcast?
-Chris
Many of the broadcasts are shot in widescreen mode and are shown compressed in the 4:3 format. It is OK if you stretch it on your own widescreen set, but the stretch algorithms can be different than the original compression algorithms and some goofy distortion can be seen at time. If you are watching on a 4:3 set, you get to watch skinny people.
ChrisWyso
04-23-08, 11:00 AM
Many of the broadcasts are shot in widescreen mode and are shown compressed in the 4:3 format. It is OK if you stretch it on your own widescreen set, but the stretch algorithms can be different than the original compression algorithms and some goofy distortion can be seen at time. If you are watching on a 4:3 set, you get to watch skinny people.
OK, this makes sense because anytime I watch what I've DL'ed, I have to set the Sony to "Full/Zoom" to see everything properly (proportionally). I actually thought it was the person compressing the movie file that wasn't setting it to 16:9. Didn't really matter much since I compensated it with the set.
So does DTV set it right, or do they just pass thru the squeezed signal for air?
-Chris
TigerFan55
09-10-08, 08:25 PM
Does anyone have any info on when the new CricketTicket package is going to come out? I seem to remember them saying it would be around September or October '08.
Does anyone have any info on when the new CricketTicket package is going to come out? I seem to remember them saying it would be around September or October '08.
DirecTV has historically not been one to provide a lot of lead time before announcing the new Cricket Ticket packages before they actually start or provide a lot of publicity when they are announced. Typically, the CSR's on the Cricket Ticket line will have the information well before it is posted on the D* website.
DirecTV has historically not been one to provide a lot of lead time before announcing the new Cricket Ticket packages before they actually start or provide a lot of publicity when they are announced. Typically, the CSR's on the Cricket Ticket line will have the information well before it is posted on the D* website.
Just in the last day or two, CricketTicket 2008 has been updated to include new series in the coming southern summer.
Bangladesh in South Africa (beginning later today on channel 117/Sat 101 according to my guide - no doubt at 2027 or similar on Sat 95 also)
New Zealand in Australia (Nov and February)
West Indies in New Zealand (Dec-Jan)
South Africa in Australia (Dec-Jan)
See:
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPage.jsp?assetId=1100076
I guess whoever paid the original fee for CT2008 is now getting a great deal, as all these tours are being added to the package at what appears to be no extra cost. They are also available on a single-tour purchase basis, except Bang in SAfr (for some reason). Bang v SAfr appearing on Sat 101 gives hope the others will do the same, as has usually been the case for southern summer series in the past.
Given that DirecTV's contracts with Aust, SAfr and NZ cricket supposedly ran out in the first half of 2008 after a 4-year period, hopefully this means those contracts have been renewed for another 4 years.
However, with these series added toCT2008, presumably CT2009 will not appear until February 2009 (assuming it appears at all).
dilmirch
12-21-08, 06:10 PM
I've had it for three years. The "Cricket Ticket" is ZTV Americas, running from September 27!!! That's the biggest gotcha. Sign up "for a year" in November, you get 11 months! They only "carry" with that, what's on ZTV, which is whoever is playing in India, IPL, ICL, etc.
Until last week, if you buy "highlights" you only get the last day's, not the whole Test. Packages are up indefinitely, but they retire the links, so you have to save them or download the video. Quality is OK, but the codec ix 2x what it should be. Also, I this is the ONLY app I have not gotten to work under Ubuntu/wine. You must have Windoze.
They have been better since being acquired by Dish, but Wllow.tv still is fraudulently registered as a business. Cali registration requires that registered address be "a place of business, generally open to the public, where you may be contacted for legal process". Their address is the guy's home that owns it, and he doesn't answer even certified mail.
That said, if you don't mind WIndoze, you buy the Cricket Ticket, you can pick up highlights packages for $15 or so, just make sure you record each day with something like WMRecorder.
They will get back to you eventually if you complain; I got this year for 1/2 price, so I would call them solidly in the middle of the rip-off->regular business continuum.
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