I’d say about 40 years
Hopefully not
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Bill Lawry 
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Today’s Women’s Ashes Twenty20 match from Canberra will be shown on the main channel live around Australia. Hopefully it won’t go overtime, otherwise it will be like the recent ODI game in which the closing stages had to be shown on 9GO! in NSW and VIC so main channel could air normal programs.
From now you can watch Nine’s coverage of summer of cricket on Qantas domestic flights. The announcement was made on the same day the Australian squad for the Ashes test at Brisbane was announced.
QANTAS TURNS ON THE CRICKET THIS SUMMER AT 30,000FT USING WI-FI
Customers travelling on Qantas Domestic aircraft fitted with inflight Wi-Fi will have the opportunity to watch every live game of international cricket played in Australia this season.
As part of the airline’s partnership with Cricket Australia, Qantas will live stream 75 matches of professional cricket played in Australia including the Commonwealth Bank Women’s Ashes T20 matches, Magellan Men’s Ashes, the Gillette One Day Internationals and T20s, the KFC Big Bash League and Rebel WBBL.
Qantas Chief Customer Officer, Olivia Wirth, said Qantas is leading the way in Australia for inflight connectivity.
“Qantas is proud to support the men’s and women’s teams through our Cricket Australia partnership, and as part of that we’re able to offer more than 400 hours of live cricket over the season to around 60,000 customers inflight every week,” she said.
“Our goal is to give our customers the best inflight Wi-Fi experience in Australia. We’ve installed ViaSat’s next generation in-flight Wi-Fi service, which delivers speeds up to 10 times faster than conventional on-board Wi-Fi by tapping into the nbn satellite network. We’ve partnered with the best in entertainment and we’re offering it for free.”
Cricket Australia Executive GM, Broadcasting, Digital Media & Commercial, Ben Amarfio, said: “Our mantra of serving cricket fans wherever they are, is going to the next level with this fantastic initiative. This unique partnership allows us to deliver on that even when cricket fans are 30,000 feet in the air. Courtesy of Qantas, cricket fans won’t miss a ball of action.
“We are also delighted that we will be able to showcase a wide variety of Cricket Australia Digital’s feature content to fans on-demand, so they get their cricket fix even when matches are not being played,” Ben Amarfio commented.
Following a successful customer trial earlier this year, the airline has so far installed next generation Wi-Fi hardware on *15 Boeing 737 aircraft as part of its progressive rollout. Focusing initially on its 737 fleet, Qantas will begin installation on its domestic A330s from early next year, with 80 B737 and A330 aircraft complete by the end of 2018.
“The customer trial on our first Wi-Fi aircraft helped us fine-tune the system and we’re pleased to be switching the system on across the domestic fleet. When it is complete, 15 million passengers a year will be able to stay connected in the air,” Olivia Wirth added.
In addition to live cricket matches, a dedicated channel on Qantas Inflight Entertainment from January will keep fans engaged with cricket content produced by Cricket Australia Digital exclusively for Qantas, including:
Ashes Moments: Memorable performances of the storied rivalry recalled by the men who made them happen
Turf Wars: Relive the greatest Ashes series with cinematic highlight reels
Invaders: Profiling some of the best Englishmen to plant their bat on Australian soilThe Qantas system gives customers the ability to stream movies, TV shows, sport, music and news programs – including through content partnerships with Stan, Spotify and Netflix. In an extended deal, Netflix will offer new customers three months of access, while existing Netflix customers can apply the same three month offer to their account. Customers can also stay connected through email as well as social media, watch the latest YouTube clips or shop online.
In addition to customer use, Wi-Fi provides Qantas crew with real time information that will improve efficiency and the passenger experience. Pilots are able to access detailed live weather, which will help them steer clear of turbulence as well as making better use of tailwinds to reduce flying time. Cabin crew have more options to better manage customers’ onward journeys while still in the air.
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Nine’s cricket graphics are now one of the best in the world IMO. So slick and clean. Much better than the one they had before.
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I honestly don’t understand the angst about 9’s commentary team for the cricket. 9 have always tended towards former test players and, in particular, former captains, which is an entirely reasonable selection process (even if the quality of some of their commentary is questionable). There are 4 former captains in those 8 pictured, plus arguably the best keeper and best bowler Australia’s produced. The remaining two have been there for years and anchor the overall coverage (Nicholas) and the Cricket Show (Slater) so aren’t going to be dumped on a whim.
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Simple.
Being a good, or even great player, doesn’t make you a good commmentator. Nine goes after names, rather than orators.
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Fake news.
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I agree with that (no different to coaching or other areas of sport - great players don’t always make great coaches or administrators) and that is a more valid criticism of their commentary team than the ‘diversity’ angle some seem to seek out.
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You answered it when you said even if the quality of some of their commentary is questionable! Couldn’t care less who they are or what their playing achievements are, it doesn’t matter when they are in the commentary box.
Cricket doesn’t need non-players as commentators. Otherwise you get Andy Maher.
Keep the “play-by-play” commentators like Andy Maher, Jim Maxwell and Harsha Bhogle to radio.
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I think the graphics can get even better, by not having all capital letters on the captions.
I’ve never understood why TV cricket, and only cricket is the domain of ex-players only. Sure, the slower pace lends itself to not needing a play-by-play caller on TV but there’s no need for the whole commentary box to only be experts.
The ODI graphics are much nicer than the test graphics, I wish they’d just use them for everything. The white that’s used on the ODI gfx are more appropriate for tests if anything!
BT Sport in Britain will be taking pictures from Nine for the Ashes series, but will also provide four of its own cameras at each ground. Obviously BT will have its own calling team. BT’s coverage will be produced by Sunset+Vine.
Here is a comprehensive guide on BT’s coverage.
I will be in London during the Boxing Day test at the MCG and the fifth test at the SCG. If my accommodation receives BT Sport, I will be able to take screencaps with my smartphone and post them here for a comparison.
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As mentioned in Inside Cricket thread, Forged in Fire, the three-part documentary on the last 50 years of Ashes rivalry, will be shown on Nine during the third Ashes test in Perth (December 14-18).
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