Cricket, Money... and spectators

The India-West Indies cricket series started today, amid a lot of conjecture and hype around Sourav Ganguly's return, and Sachin Tendulkar's batting position, not to speak of India's preparation for the World Cup. In short, this was a match (and the entire series) that everybody was waiting for.

It turned out that the match would be telecast, "Live and Exclusive", on Neo Sports, which, hold your breath, only gives out a CAS specific feed!! Maybe someone forgot to tell Neo Sports that many parts of India have yet to implement CAS, and it might be a good idea to telecast for the rest of the cable-TV population of India, who pay out of their pockets to see these matches too. Even the newspapers ads from Neo Sports only boast of a minuscule small-print, yes, decidedly minuscule, when you consider the small print meted out by the rest of the field, declaring that the feed would be CAS specific. It's almost as if they don't want their prospective viewers to watch their game of cricket!

But perhaps the buck stops, as it always does, with the BCCI. Yes, money is important. Yes, sponsors and telecast rights form a major portion of revenues collected by the Board. But what use is a match telecast that only a small fraction of viewers can watch? Even while being alert to the amount of money that they earn, should they not try to ensure that the maximum possible number of people can actually watch these matches?

Some would argue that under this logic only free-to-air channels should get telecast rights. But the point made by non-free-to-air channels is fair enough: namely, that free-to-air channels simply do not generate enough revenue from advertisements alone to sustain their business of telecasting matches. Indeed, major tournaments that are watched by the entire nation, such as the World Cup, are telecast by the national broadcaster, Doordarshan, in addition to the paid channels, of course with a payment to the "Exclusive" Channel.

This situation, anyway, is different. Neo Sports is a pay channel; only, it has chosen to telecast only for the CAS section of the population. It is not a case of affordability here: even those who are ready to pay the money, are unable to subscribe, because the technology is simply not there!!

Perhaps Neo Sports should wake up to the fact that not everything about India is Neo after all.

Post Script...

My last post on a couple of films that I recently watched brought a comment from a reader. She wondered exactly how good or bad the second film is, that I gave it a No Comments tag??

Well, let me explain...

As I said in the last post, I try to follow the adage: "Speak well of whoever or whatever you admire or like; of the rest say nothing". Which might mean that if I like a certain aspect about something, I'll speak well about it, right?? Right.

Well, I still have no comments on Bhagam Bhag.

A wonderful film, and a 'No comments' one!!

When I used to study at International Indian School, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, there used to be numerous quotations or moral remarks displayed on the walls of the corridor. I particularly remember one such message: "Speak well of your friends; of the rest say nothing". I have since modified the saying, for myself, to: "Speak well of whoever or whatever you admire or like; of the rest say nothing".

Recently I had occasion to watch two new Hindi Films. One of them, Guru, is simply a wonderful film. I am no expert on film-making, nor do I call myself a film-buff. Nevertheless, I will venture to say that Guru represents everything that good cinema should probably have: a good story; a great script to tell that story; wonderful actors who can bring the characters to life; music that is germane to the situations in the film, and melodious and mesmerising at the same time; and great camera work.

Abhishek Bachchan sizzles as Gurukant Desai; Aishwarya does well as his supporting wife; Mithun da, Madhavan and Vidya Balan form a very competent supporting cast. Guru is simply one film that should not, must not, be given a miss.

The other film that I saw was Bhagam Bhag, about which I will venture to say nothing.