TNT’S BURGEONING COVERAGE
It’s crept up on us a bit, but TNT has become a serious player in the UK’s cricket-showing market. It now shows considerably more Test cricket than its main rival, taking in Australia and New Zealand’s home summers, and recently signing a deal with the BCCI to broadcast every one of their home internationals for the next five years.
The India deal kicked in for the England series, and while the broadcast started in slightly ramshackle fashion, with the contract signed too late to secure studio space for the first Test and forcing Matt Floyd to describe the pictures from a studio booth somewhere, it picked up from the second Test with a studio hired in Gothenburg and filled with Alastair Cook, Steve Finn, and new anchor, Kate Mason.
Cook and Finn are likeable, telegenic and increasingly assured, even if the ‘banter’ is a little strained at times, but the star is Mason, who doesn’t overplay her hand, gives the floor to the ex-pros and lets them do their work. Crucially she looks to be having a blast doing it. It’s not especially edgy, which is refreshing for modern TV. If it lacks a little gnarl, that’s OK with me. I can go on Twitter for that. I expect the broadcasts to grow in stature and scale ahead of the Ashes in 18 months’ time.