Atherton calls for more even distribution of game's profits

[G_B_]

While television rights are a major revenue source for the stronger boards and are therefore unlikely to be given up lightly, Atherton believed there was another possibility for a more even spread of profits. He used the example of the way Major League Baseball splits its broadcasting rights between teams, and said cricket might be able to use a similar system for internet rights. "Internet rights are in their infancy," Atherton said. "What happens in baseball is there's a kind of organisation jointly owned by the clubs, and internet rights are pooled together and then the profits are spread out between all the clubs, the weak clubs and the strong clubs. They're trying to create a level playing field. "I think something like that has to happen with cricket. You won't get India giving away their television rights, you won't get Australia giving away their television rights, but internet rights are in their infancy and something like that [may work]."

http://www.espncricinfo.com/cricinfo-for-cricket/content/story/690087.html I fully agree with this point. IMO maybe the ICC need to buy out say willow TV. Then global internet rights will basically mean people subscribing to the service say for $5 a month on a monthly basis. In return they get all the international cricket being played during that month. It should raise $200 million a year which can be redistributed equally among the 10 (maybe 11 in the future with ireland) nations + ICC gets one cut. Thats on average $15 million a year which will go a long way to keep boards like Zim etc afloat.

[gattaca]

Atherton stop begging for money. GB ICC is already giving moneyto associates from what I read an article.

[putrevus]

Atherton also countered a suggestion from Waugh that the IPL was good for some of the weaker boards, as it enabled players to earn more of a livelihood and reduced the pressure on the home boards to raise their pay. "Does it take pressure off their boards or put pressure on their boards?" Atherton said. "We have a Test series in England usually in early May ... it's often a two-Test series against what you might call the less powerful nations, a New Zealand or West Indies at the moment. it is always about IPL for these idiots, why cant this guy ask his own Board to stop scheduling tests in early cold May just to fulfill ECB's obligation to Sky.Players can play IPL and also tests that is what KP wanted and they made him public villain number no1 What is the need to have two tier system for their summers, let them invite only one team and have 4 or five test series with that team along odi series. This fixed summer calenders for both Aussies and Pommies are the root cause for all evils .This already has robbed a long test series between Australia and South Africa.

[G_B_]

^ i do believe the ecb have moved tests from may

[putrevus]

^^^ Didnt they play tests in may against NZ in many before Ashes.I think they did play in may 2013. In England test cricket sells more than Odis, reasons may be many.They use it as pretext to trumpet themselves as some custodians of test cricket. If tomorrow somebody offers more money for odis they will dump tests in a heart beat. If any English media guy says one more time the need to cut down bilateral odis I would like bash him.Any competitive odi series far better than utterly ridiculous one sided tests like we had recently.

[Zap_Brannigan]

Great idea..now if only atherton shares his earning with the rest of the world. I really dont understand people who are always looking for a handout. As it is, BCCI already makes a lot less money than what Indian based advertisers put into the game now they want to take a bigger cut? It is unfortunate that a lot of the money in cricket comes from India but it doesnt mean that BCCI has to fund the running of all the other boards. It doesnt happen anywhere else.

[G_B_]

Its not about funding IMO but you need say $30 million USD per board per year to be generated from common pooled resources. As things stand i dont think the BCCI makes too much money from internet rights. I doubt they will lose much from this.

[Zap_Brannigan]

BCCI makes about 100 million $ per year from International cricket only because it has the rights to only its home games which means that when they play abroad, they lose money since most of the advertisers pay for the eyeballs of the Indian fan. BCCI also makes 100 million $ a year from IPL. That's just for 2 months per year as they retain the entire rights (They share it with the clubs but they are also paid a franchise fee). So it will be BCCI funding the other boards if they pool all the rights and divide into an equal share. Infact, i think BCCI should get the Indian TV rights for all games it plays abroad or atleast get paid much more when touring or atleast host more(which was how the ECB kept most its money back in its day). Right now, they are losing money if they get paid the same as all the other boards when touring as they bring in much more than all the other boards. You need to know that even our ranji players are paid more than a lot of international players and this is only possible if BCCI get money. How do you suppose BCCI can continue paying even our ranji players a high salary if its revenues are reduced? BCCI probably gets nothing from Internet rights right now but whatever revenue it loses now is still revenue lost and i am assuming that Internet rights could be worth a lot in the future. Besides i dont think anyone will pay 200/300 million $ for Internet rights today when the entire TV rights of all International cricket is probably around the same region.

[jalebi_bhai]

^^^ Didnt they play tests in may against NZ in many before Ashes.I think they did play in may 2013. In England test cricket sells more than Odis, reasons may be many.They use it as pretext to trumpet themselves as some custodians of test cricket. If tomorrow somebody offers more money for odis they will dump tests in a heart beat. If any English media guy says one more time the need to cut down bilateral odis I would like bash him.Any competitive odi series far better than utterly ridiculous one sided tests like we had recently.

+1 Remember that joke of a super series with the fraud Allen Stanford?? These calls for 'even distribution of profits' is basically another way of saying we need to reduce BCCI and India's growing influence on global cricket.......

[cowboysfan]

England should start by not stealing players from other countries,they have decimated irish cricket by stealing their best players whenever they want.

[vvvslaxman]

socialism :woot:

[G_B_]

I think people are missing the point. If anything England are going to be totally hammered by this proposal. Atpresent you have to buy the entire skysports bundle even if your not interested in football, rugby league and union. Ie its like going to a buffet lunch only for a single item. BCCI are just not going to be affected by this atleast for the next 10-20 years. India does not have the broadband speeds to support this. England and Australia will be heavily hit by all this. They will lose their TV coverage and in the case of England they dont even have a T20 competition to fall back on. My entire street is sitting on upto 20 mb in broadband. Rarely does the actual speed dip below 10mb. Clearly as somebody interested in Indian cricket i am not going to go for the entire skysports package which includes all sorts of sports i have no interest in. All this will do if made into a law is just increase the gulf in power between england, aus and India will slightly decrease the gulf between NZ, SL etc. But these teams were never going to challenge the BCCI anyways. This bill will crush england financially. The bcci have multiple revenue sources. They can keep the entire IPL. Then there is sponcorship from the likes of Nike to the tune of $15 million a year (and that will rise). Then there is the new Sahara ones. Unlike England and Aus with their relatively stagnant economies BCCI is linked to the Indian economy and will continue to make more money. Ie the gap will just keep on increasing.

[Zap_Brannigan]

I think people are missing the point. If anything England are going to be totally hammered by this proposal. Atpresent you have to buy the entire skysports bundle even if your not interested in football, rugby league and union. Ie its like going to a buffet lunch only for a single item. BCCI are just not going to be affected by this atleast for the next 10-20 years. India does not have the broadband speeds to support this. England and Australia will be heavily hit by all this. They will lose their TV coverage and in the case of England they dont even have a T20 competition to fall back on. My entire street is sitting on upto 20 mb in broadband. Rarely does the actual speed dip below 10mb. Clearly as somebody interested in Indian cricket i am not going to go for the entire skysports package which includes all sorts of sports i have no interest in. All this will do if made into a law is just increase the gulf in power between england, aus and India will slightly decrease the gulf between NZ, SL etc. But these teams were never going to challenge the BCCI anyways. This bill will crush england financially. The bcci have multiple revenue sources. They can keep the entire IPL. Then there is sponcorship from the likes of Nike to the tune of $15 million a year (and that will rise). Then there is the new Sahara ones. Unlike England and Aus with their relatively stagnant economies BCCI is linked to the Indian economy and will continue to make more money. Ie the gap will just keep on increasing.

It is true that England will be the most affected by this at present. I pay 60 pounds(HD bundle + movies + sports + entertainment extra bundle) for Sky which i rarely use. I still might not opt out even if Internet stream is viable since watching in HD is something else but i am sure a lot of others would drop out of the sky bundle easily. So England will not go for it. As simple as that. BCCI has nothing to with this. BCCI has been very open about internet. They were the first to stream live which they did with the IPL. They said that they would stream International games too. They even stream Ranji matches. All for pretty much free (Even their IPL internet rights they sold were really for much smaller amount).

[Malcolm Merlyn]

At the end of the day,all that english ex players etc can talk about is IPL.IPL is evil.This is becoming boring.

[Blue-no1]

Turning Socialist are we Mike?. Why dont we distribute the wealth of Europe in Africa and India. While we are at it how about some cash from EU soccer to develop the game in India and US.

[Precambrian]

Yet another classic example of a well dressed sophisticated angrezi spouting bs. Lapped up as if gospel by anti Indian media and some Indians who want to look cool.

[G_B_]

It is true that England will be the most affected by this at present. I pay 60 pounds(HD bundle + movies + sports + entertainment extra bundle) for Sky which i rarely use. I still might not opt out even if Internet stream is viable since watching in HD is something else but i am sure a lot of others would drop out of the sky bundle easily. So England will not go for it. As simple as that. BCCI has nothing to with this. BCCI has been very open about internet. They were the first to stream live which they did with the IPL. They said that they would stream International games too. They even stream Ranji matches. All for pretty much free (Even their IPL internet rights they sold were really for much smaller amount).

So why are people afraid of this proposal? You live in the UK. Cricket in the uk IMO in the is going to be split right down the middle between BT and Sky. I for one dont want to shell out money for both sky and BT at the same time. Atherton who himself works for Sky will find that his own job might be in jeopardy. Dont think he realises this. IMO this is not about white people at all. The biggest beneficiary will be the black players of Zimbabwe. The guys that are barely making $500 a month. Dont people want a world with 11 strong financially secure teams? I think its fair that the BCCI give up say 10% of potential revenue. For all the talk of socialism i do believe even the IPL has that with wage caps and all franchises sharing the broadcast revenue equally is socialism. Thats despite some franchises like MI and CSK clearly getting more eye balls than the rest. So there is socialism even within the BCCI.

[Crookbond]

Zap - Where does BCCI stream Ranji? I mean - which channel?