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Nine misses first ball of Ashes series

GEM was screening ads when the first ball of the Ashes series was bowled.

2013-07-11_0026Given that Nine prides itself as the home of cricket, it is rather disconcerting to read today in The Age that it missed broadcasting the first ball of the Ashes series last night.

Nine had to tweet the result to viewers, but not everybody was happy.

 

 

24 Responses

  1. Yes unforgivable. There were charity events around the first day, with people like Steve Waugh hosting an event. Not seeing the frist ball is a disgrace. Obviously no cricketer in the 9 control room

  2. @William

    It’s pretty easy to check if anything is in true HD, that is if your are recording to USB data storage etc, as the GB’s consumed by HD, will be between two thirds to double of what SD uses over the same recording time, and can/does vary between networks and your reception quality.

  3. @ marrkninety
    I agree “Weird ” , and I do hope you haven’t dobbed some poor bugger in, because if it’s the one thing that all the commercial networks excel at, and apart from all the misleading promo’s, EPG’s, misleading printed programmes ,starting and finishing times etc. it’s the virtually unerring accuracy exhibited by all networks across all of their multi-channels, it’s the extremely accurate co-ordination of their add breaks, with the exception of the dedicated shopping channels and advertorials of course.
    No doubt someone at NBN’s Gem will be reading their “Please Explain why weren’t you showing adds instead” demand today, who may only be able to claim temporary insanity, or foolishly try to blame it on the erratic digital transmissions freezes,dropouts and………??? But i wish them best of luck with the last excuse, because they will only get the same absolute B/S answers and absolutely no support or admissions, other than ‘contact your nearest Authorized Antenna Installer” from the “Digital Ready” mob.
    @ David Knox ,
    Sorry David, but I’m still banging on about the so called digital era, in hope of generating enough response from many who suffer with loss of signal and before the “Digital Ready Mob” disappear into Telstra’s copper network, much like when we lost our ‘ Analogue and CDMA mobile networks, and before they turn off the last proof/evidence of loss of services between Analogue and Digital TV

  4. Sounds like another problem with Media Hub. The previous night just before A Current Affair on GEM (WIN) an ad for Longmire was shown and the final frame froze and was on screen for more than 15 minutes. A Current Affair started and only the soundtrack was heard under the Longmire still. The vision for two complete stories was missed and was only restored halfway thru the third story.

  5. @Armchair Analyst
    Are you kidding?! A small issue?!
    They.Missed.The.First.Ball.Of.The.Ashes!
    Wouldn’t be a channel nine employ would you?

  6. What is all the fuss about. So what Nine didnt show the first ball on GEM who cares. As long as they showed the rest Live that is all i care. If they missed the first session that would have been an outrage but they didnt. So all the people who are complaining about this they need to have more perspective. The english fans do not have FTA coverage of this big event, its on SKY Sports pay tv. here in oz we are fortunate that its on FTA on GEM, i say instead of complaining about a minor issue lets just enjoy the event whilst its on FTA.

  7. It may have something to do with the fact that the Gem Ashes feed was delayed by about 10 seconds to the Fox Sports Ashes feed. They were the same feed from Sky Sports in UK but it was weird watching a ball being bowled and then fielded on Fox Sports then flicking to gem and seeing the bolwer at the start of his run up of that same ball?

  8. WIN’s GEM Channel in Regional SA did miss the first ball because of ads, that why at the last second I had to flick over to Fox Sports 2 to catch the first ball just in time.

  9. The Age article does not specify which GEM station missed it? And nor do the twitters but looking at the account details available, they are located in non-Nine controlled areas. Nine in Sydney and other reports here indicate the first ball was in fact screened in areas like NBN and Gold Coast. I suspect MediaHub controlled stations like WIN GEM, NWS Adelaide GEM and STW Perth GEM might have missed it. There might have been an early call from the studio to come out of a break early which the East Coast Nine staions including NBN were able to accomodate. But MediaHub where one person is most likley controling upto 30 GEM stations is not able to accomodate quickly enough and stayed with the break thereby missing the first ball.

  10. Nope, we had the first ball here in Sydney. Maybe, this only happened in Melbourne. Looking at the comments underneath the article in The Age that David linked us to, I think that may be the case.

  11. Massive fail by Nine. All of the build up to the series and they miss the first ball. Unforgiveable.

    It would be like Seven missing the first bounce of an AFL Grand Final or the first serve of the Men’s Final at Wimbledon. Unbelievable.

  12. I saw the first ball on GEM in the North Coast of NSW! Granted they were cutting it fine. Very first thing back from the ad break, was the umpire saying play and Pattinson running in.

    Interesting that they don’t mind sitting in the studio for 30 mins and chatting with Tubby Taylor, but they seemed reluctant to go to pictures from the host broadcaster until the play started. We’ll see if that continues…

  13. As to the point of the article(I sort of got carried away on my own tangent..I tend to do that..lol)..missing the first ball…I was watching on Gem on the Gold Coast..we saw everything..it was a wide.

  14. It’s the Investec Ashes..played by one team representing Vb against another team representing Brit Insurance.This is the showcase of test cricket and no one cares to preserve its tradition and special place in the sport?Must every last square inch of every uniform be wrung out for the utmost cent of commercial value.And must this simple historic trophy be monetized too.By the next Ashes they’ll probably look like Nrlers..and it’ll likely be called the Investec Ashes there and the Kfc Ashes over here.At Wimbledon they were apoplectic when Roger Federer showed up with orange soles on his sneakers.. the cricket guys will probably try to find a way to put logos on the soles..can’t let that advertising space go to waste.Last point..try to google ny yankee uniform…pinstripes,NY and number..now that’s a uniform..as classic and elegant as the sport it represents…and they don’t play the Campbell Soup World Series.

  15. This is why nine shouldn’t have sport….
    and the Harmison ball was 2006 (it was the 06/07 tour)…

    Fox in HD sure looked good on my 150 inch projector though 🙂

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