Hope for cricket

Anxious cricket lovers across Barbados may yet get to see Test cricket from England on CBC-TV's Channel 8. Deputy general manager Claude Graham said yesterday that despite the extremely high cost of transmission, they were still hoping for an 11th-hour reprieve.

'We are very hopeful that the sponsors will come through.

'We are confident, almost, that something will happen, even if it is at the 11th hour,' he said.

Meanwhile, the corporation is exploring the option of providing payper-view service if the Channel 8 plan falls through.

Explaining why CBC was seeking US$221 000 when the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) was selling them the broadcast rights package for just US$80 000, Graham said the 32 days of cricket would result in considerable personnel, electricity and other utility costs.

'There is also the most important matter of opportunity costs,' he added. 'During the time we would show cricket, we would normally be showing other programmes which would attract advertising as well as programmes that are specifically sponsored.

'A most important consideration during this time would be the midday soaps, which attract significant sponsorship that can't be ignored.'

He disclosed that the last time CBC undertook such coverage of a cricket tour it lost US$120 000 and could not contemplate a repeat performance.

The opening Test between the West Indies and England starts in Edgbaston, Birmingham, tomorrow (6 a.m. local time), and Graham said the pay-per-view was itself not a 'done deal' as the corporation would need to get 'a commitment in writing from the people who control payper-view rights'.

'We are hoping the pendulum comes down on the free-to-air channel [Channel 8], but failing that we will exercise the option to carry it on pay-per-view once we get formal permission from those who control pay-per-view rights,' he said.

Barbados is the only one of 19 Caribbean countries not yet committed to taking live ball-by-ball coverage from the CBU. Even tiny islands such St. Eustatius, which is smaller than the parish of St. Philip, have accepted the cricket package.

A reliable source said rates charged by CBU to access cricket were staggered and gauged on the perceived rate of development of a country and its viewer audience.

A television executive in Trinidad noted that they were offered a US$122 000 package by the CBU, and their records indicated that was 'the entire cost'. He, too, expressed some difficulty in reconciling the difference between CBC's US$80 000 package and their perceived need for US$221 000 in sponsorship.