That seems bloody useless, then

ECBTv has been up and running for a little while now, and seeing as a lot of people come to this site to find out how to view cricket on their PC, I did a little more research. The first thing that struck me, is that the ECBTv website is out of date – it’s still telling you that you can subscribe to watch England vs Pakistan, which has obviously finished. Secondly though, I was struck by a notice that said “live coverage is not available in your area”. Interesting. Read the small print and it becomes a lot more interesting:

Can I watch the live stream?

Please note that these countries are unable to view the live stream:

Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bermuda, Bhutan ,Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, China, Cyprus, East Timor, Egypt ,Ethiopia ,Georgia, Guam, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Macao, Malaysia, Maldives, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Zealand, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Soloman Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, The Bahamas, The Cayman Islands, The Leeward Islands including Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, St Kitts/Nevis, Montserrat and the British Virgin Islands), The Windward Islands (including St Lucia, St Vincent, Dominica and Grenada), Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UAE, UK, Ukraine, USA, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe

That’s right – the English Cricket Board television service, can’t display cricket to people in England. That’s a lot of countries that can’t view the live stream. What would be the use of the service for people interested in the recent England vs Pakistan series? I’ve added highlighting to the list of the major cricket-playing countries around the world who can’t view the stream. I don’t think a single test-playing (ergo cricket following) nation gets the stream.

No doubt there are all sorts of issues over rights, but seriously have I missed something? What’s the use of this service?