Cricket on TV of late

Much of the Indian viewer base is already accustomed to ads between each over during the live telecast of Cricket. It has almost become an accepted part of life, although many have become smart enough to keep the remote on their side to mute the TV between overs. But those of us who watched the Cricket World Cup this time in India might have spotted, fumed and then cursed at the insensibility of the SET Max crew. Commentary was cut short, ads DJed in even before the over was completed, et al. H R Venkatesh of tv18 [:http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/hrvenkatesh/161/39371/aussies-champs-viewe…|puts this aptly on his recent blog post]:

Cutting back to action from a commercial break, we were treated to a celebrating Australia in the 33rd over of the Sri Lankan run chase. Apparently, the Lankan batsmen had accepted an offer to walk off because of bad light with three overs to go (in a 38-overs-a-side-final), sparking off premature celebrations in the Aussie camp. Of course, we didn't know that, because we were watching the ads. Many moments later, the channel did it again; just when Australia were about to take off with the World Cup trophy, they cut into Charu Sharma, Mandira Bedi and co.

Of all the blogs at IBN-Live, blogs of [:http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/blog_details.php?author_id=1|Rajdeep Sardesai] and [:http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/blog_details.php?author_id=161|H R Venkatesh] have been more sensible ones to read. **** P. Sainath on Hindu [:http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/11/stories/2007041103231000.htm|has an article on the same phenomenon]. Quote:

Logos and uniforms proclaim who owns the players and it's not the country. Once it was just an annoying bunch of ear-splitting ads between overs. Now it's a colossal money-spinning industry in which the game is smaller than the revenue. and quotes this quote from Jeffrey Campbell: "Advertising is like the arms race. Once you start, there's no way to stop." ;)