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The difficulties facing the broadcast of West Indies cricket tours abroad were further underlined yesterday when CANA and the CBU cancelled live radio coverage of the WI/New Zealand series just seven hours before it was due to begin.

“At about midday on Wednesday, the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU), and the Caribbean News Agency (CANA), terminated plans to provide radio coverage of the West Indies Tour of New Zealand,” a joint release by the two organisations said yesterday.

The release said the decision was made after a number of developments which led to the project becoming financially difficult.

“CBU/CANA regrets that the decision had to be taken and apologises for the inconvenience, but ensures that it came to the decision reluctantly and without any other viable choice,” the release said.

Nothing more was said but CBU has in the past questioned the viability of covering West Indies tours overseas and it was only on Monday that television coverage was confirmed. It will be on MultiChoice TV’s pay-per-view in Barbados.

Subscription TV

And the subscription route may be the future of the game of the region.

The CBU’s Gary Allen said the exorbitant cost of satellite transmissions for overseas tours could make pay-per-view more common.

“It is very likely that our overseas tours are going to be primarily driven by a pay-per-view development over the next few months to few years but that the home tours may very well be staying as a free-to-air arrangement,” Allen told the audience of the CBC programme, Best And Mason, on Tuesday night.

“With regards to the home tours, to cricket played in the Caribbean, I believe there will be sufficient support for that to stay on free-to-air television for another few years.”

This comes as at least three territories in the region negotiated possible pay-per-view packages for the current West Indies tour of New Zealand.

Barbados is the first confirmed country to offer the service and Allen said the Cayman Islands were leaning strongly in that direction.

He said that the CBU hoped for revenue of US$400 000 but that target may not be reached as only 10 of the 18 territories were broadcasting the cricket. Trinidad and Tobago opted for a highlights package.

“We have confirmed a limited highlights package for Trinidad and Tobago but the Trinidad market not going with live coverage is a significant development, but it does speak to the state of the market place.”

He attributed this to the Christmas season with pre-budgeted advertising and sponsors might not be confident that there had been a return to form by the West Indies cricket team.

© The Barbados Nation