sussexpob wrote:This 4 day test stuff seems like nonsense to me. It sounds like a way of guaranteeing more draws, especially in a sport that can be effected by weather.
Example.... Middlesex won I think 5 games of 16 in the county championship and won the title.
I am sure people will flock to a sport that has a 30% change of a result.
Won't happen anyway BCCI won't agree to it unless ICC can make ways of 4 test making more money to the TV broadcaster than 5 day games.
90 overs worth of adverts is worth a lot of money, can't see broadcaster wanting to lose a week of cricket in their schedules even if Test cricket rates lower it is still by far the highest rated sport in india.
Found it funny in cricinfo the other day when their compared ratings from odi to test in india.
of course odi rated higher but they only play what 6-13 days a yr but even if test rates way lower it can be 35-60 days a yr and all the overs adds up.
plus of course the advertisers are going to say they not going to pay huge money for test cricket, they were also saying the same thing about IPL every year the ratings fell especially around 2011-2013 period and yet Sony tv made more money from advertisement each year.
don't know how the broadcaster sell the advertisement slots but if they bundled the Test with odi/t20 can imagine the Test making good money since the advert people need the adverts to be seen while india play odi/t20 cricket matches.
Anyway if Test is way cheaper wouldn't that be more better to place adverts considering you pay less and in reality loads of people still watch the cricket, last time I checked the average rating is way lower but the people that watched the cricket for at least 3 minutes was the same amount as the odi/t20 so if the reach is the same then paying money to advertise in test is better value considering similar amount of people got a chance to watch the adverts and you paying way less for the privilege.

