I am writing this post while watching the Australia-Sri Lanka match on television. And I am pretty surprised to see that only Steve Waugh has till now publicly claimed that excessive advertisements during the game play on Indian channels is killing the pleasure of watching cricket at home.
It is weird that I do not like the game of cricket but still manage to continue ranting about it.
This is what Steve Ballmer told his kids. Poor kids.
Check out his resume... And you would appreciate his sense of humor! Steve's .mac webpage
This guy was so awesome. It’s terrible that he is no longer with us.
It is my dream to one day make a complete switch over and move to Macintosh. And here is one
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April 30th, 2007 at 11:51 am
The amount of advertising on TV during cricket matches is shameful. The situation is not likely to improve until ICC takes a leaf from FIFA and sets ad standards for cricket telecast. To begin with, a few simple guidelines must be enforced rightaway:
1) No two advertising slots should be closer (to each other) than 4 minutes. This will ensure that the stupid ads are not repeatedly seen in the following scenarios:
a) A wicket falls on the 4th or 5th delivery (ads come up again at the end of the over). b) Wickets fall in consecutive deliveries (or a W-Dot-W sequence etc) c) When spinners are operating at both ends etc.
2) No advertising during brief stoppages of play during: replacement of ball, batsman adjusting his gear, fielder requesting helmet, a bowler remarking his run-up in the middle of the over, sight-screen being adjusted etc. The telecast coverage during these incidents is actually interesting to the viewer
3) During recent events especially during world cup 2007, the telecast managers most blatantly did not wait for the commentrators cue at the end of the over to cut in the ads. Ads were thrust on the viewers even BEFORE the ball was completely fielded and the score updated and shown. This is a new disease which was not pervalent earlier. All pretense towards class, quality and has been abandoned in the sole pursuit of ad revenue.
4) No scrolling pop-up style banner ads should be permitted at the top (or bottom or sides etc.). During this world cup many a time including the semi-finals and the finals the batsmans head was cut-off (obsured) by these ads at the moment of playing the shot. Such is the shabby nature of coverage, my friends.
Anywhere else in the world (both cricket and other sports) the telecast managers would find it difficult to be in business with the current standard of coverage. The viewing public would ensure that. Standard setters have wisely set the standards at a (very) high level ahead of the fact (and not after the fact). Technically, of course the telecast (during actual play, i.e. when the batsman is playing the shot, run-out replays etc.) is excellent but the overall experience for the viewer is downright shoddy.
In fact in some indirect way, this fundamental lack of desire for quality in ALL aspects is resposible for India’s poor showing in Cricket of late and sports in general.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:59 am
nicely said.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
I appreciate this detailed insights but how applicable is it in this world of inseparable ad-tv channel dependance? Am not a very big cricket fan myself, but I agree this unlimited ad time during the game is a big turn off.
I think the media needs to take a leaf out of the premier-ship football matches & ask any football fan what they would do had there been hundreds of ads popping in during the 45 min games.
On second thoughts, maybe there wont be any media left to answer that after the fans are done with them, I suppose