Dan Robson
\nDinesh Sukhija was willing to drop some cash to watch the Cricket World Cup in style. He even bought a 32-inch flat screen HD TV to honour the occasion.
\nBut Sukhija didn\u2019t realize at the time that it would cost nearly $200 extra just to get a signal \u2014 a standard-definition signal, at that \u2014 for the month-and-a-half-long tournament, which starts on Saturday and is being co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
\n\u201cThey think they can just dish out whatever they want to Canadian viewers,\u201d the disgruntled 33-year-old IT expert said of the Asia Television Network, which owns the Canadian rights to the broadcast, and sets the price.
\n
\nATN\u2019s signal is distributed by cable providers such as Rogers, Bell, Shaw and Telus.<\/p>\n
Willow TV, an internet-based provider from the U.S., is offering access to all of the World Cup games in HD for $129 U.S. But the site has blocked Canadian users, like Sukhija, from signing up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s take it or leave it,\u201d Sukhija said of the ATN package.<\/p>\n
Prakash Naidoo, vice-president and general manager of ATN, defends the cost, which is $10 more than the station charged during the 2007 World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s economy of scale. Costs go up all the time,\u201d Naidoo said. \u201cWe tried to minimize the increase.\u201d<\/p>\n
Naidoo refused to speculate on how many Canadians will watch the World Cup through the station\u2019s signal, but acknowledged that the demand for the sport is growing, especially in HD.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing forward we are looking at HD possibilities,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately, we were not able to put it into operation for this particular stream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, he maintains there is nothing the station can do about the cost. Both Rogers and Bell are subsidizing discounts for new subscribers, Naidoo confirmed. But regular, loyal customers are stuck with the $199 fee.<\/p>\n
Ranjit Saini, president of Cricket Canada, says the price of watching the sport\u2019s premier event is too high and, ultimately, self-defeating. \u201cI protest, strongly protest, the cost of the broadcast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith high costs there is less accessibility \u2014 and less people watching it,\u201d Saini said over the phone from Delhi, en route to join the Canadian team for the opening ceremonies in Bangladesh. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of people out there with that kind of money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saini stressed that he doesn\u2019t know the specifics of the costs ATN had to incur to secure the live feed. And he acknowledged that the package offers a plethora of games, beyond just the Canadian team. But much of that cost could be reduced through a greater effort to secure more sponsorship, he said.<\/p>\n
Naidoo admits ATN secured less sponsorship for the 2011 World Cup than it did for the 2007 tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just robbing people of this event,\u201d said Sukhija, who recently started a Facebook group to protest ATN\u2019s \u201cmonopoly\u201d of the Cricket World Cup.<\/p>\n
Still, he\u2019s planning to pay the $199.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no option,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd they know that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dan Robson Dinesh Sukhija was willing to drop some cash to watch the Cricket World Cup in style. He even bought a 32-inch flat screen HD TV to honour the occasion. But Sukhija didn\u2019t realize at the time that it would cost nearly $200 extra just to get a signal \u2014 a standard-definition signal, at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1249,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248\/revisions\/1249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}