Annex 4
ARTICLE BY RT HON TESSA JOWELL MP, SECRETARY
OF STATE FOR CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 14
SEPTEMBER 2005
ECB WERE IN
AN IMPOSSIBLE
POSITION OVER
TV RIGHTS
It has almost been possible to touch the fervour
and the sense of excitement over England's Ashes win. It was,
as the Telegraph said, a glorious end to a summer that began with
our success in bringing the Olympic Games to London.
I saw that champagne mood building up at the
Oval on Sunday and uncorked in Trafalgar Square yesterday. But
I know that—as well as the joy—there is concern among
some Daily Telegraph readers that there will not be live
Test cricket on terrestrial television for the next four years.
It is important to be clear how this happened
and what will happen next. In 1998 Test cricket was removed from
the list of sporting events that have to be made available to
all viewers—at the specific request of the England and Wales
Cricket Board.
They sought this freedom so they could maximise
their income from selling broadcasting rights to the highest bidder:
crucial, since 80% of the ECB's income comes from that source.
It is a matter of public record that the BBC
did not bid for the new television contract. Not for live cricket,
nor recorded highlights, not for five-day games, not for county
cricket, nor Twenty20.
ITV did not bid either and the offer involving
Channel 4 was too low. Had it been accepted—instead of Sky's
offer for all the action—the sport would have lost almost
£100 million over four years—money vital to the future
not just of the national team, but also to cricket at grassroots
level and among our young people. The cricket authorities have
been in an impossible position: between a rock and a hard place.
As W F Deedes recognised in this newspaper last week, cricket
needs this money to build a brighter future. If cricket did not
have this income because ministers tied its hands we would rightly
be criticised.
It would be wholly wrong for the Government
to intervene to prevent Sky's contract with the ECB going ahead—and
on what grounds? This is a contract that was won fair and square,
by open competition. I am confident Sky's coverage next season
will be first class and their enterprise and imagination will
help spread cricket's message.
When it comes to the future, I announced yesterday
that it was my intention that there should be a review of the
list of events that should be accessible to all viewers. This
will happen around 2008 or 2009, as Britain begins the switch-over
to digital television—a move which will transform TV in
this country. This is the right time to weigh up these complex
issues as the new shape of British TV starts to emerge.
Government has a role: to protect the public
interest and the availability of treasured national sporting events
in the new digital world. However, the challenge for all of us
is to think not just what cricket has done for us in the last
two months, but to think what we can do for cricket.
That means people getting back to old habits
and actually going and watching cricket—supporting England
in big numbers again next summer and developing something of the
same affinity for county teams that football engenders.
That is a big challenge to cricket to build
on what has been achieved at Test level and with Twenty20. To
make the likes of Vaughan and Flintoff, Pietersen and Jones role
models for new generations, not just one-summer wonders.
To take the game to our town and cities, using
the big screen idea developed so successfully with "Cricket
in the Park".
So in four years' time, when Australia return,
I hope the cricket authorities will be wondering if grounds like
the Oval are big enough to satisfy all the public demand.
So that parents will encourage their sons and
daughters to watch the highlights on Five from next year, but
also—and much more importantly—to watch their heroes
in the flesh and play themselves. That means schools having a
big role and I am delighted at the work the Chance to Shine campaign
to get cricket back into state schools.
This summer could be the moment when cricket
is re-born as our national summer sport—not just on television,
but in playgrounds, sports fields and indoor centres the length
of our country.
16 November 2005
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