Test Match Special - with Pictures!!!

[julian...@virgin.net]

The thousands of cricket lovers worldwide who tuned in to Test Match Special on the Internet from the Sixth Cornhill Test are to get a second trial shot from the NatWest Final - with an added picture bonus.

The BBC and ECB have agreed to extend the trial broadcast to the rescheduled one-day showpiece at Lord's on Sunday, 7 September after the exceptional response to the experiment from The Foster's Oval last month.

Listeners from as far afield as the Solomon Islands, Lithuania, Thailand, Belize, Brunei, Brazil and the Australian outback hooked up their multimedia PC's to the Net and experienced England's thrilling victory, courtesy of the famous TMS team.

And the same technology will be used to broadcast full coverage of the match between Essex and Warwickshire on the Lord's website - with visitors this time also able to 'watch' the match via the camview from the TMS commentary box at Lord's - a permanent feature of the official ECB/MCC site at http://lords.msn.com

Updated once a minute, the camview normally provides a snapshot across the pitch from the Warner Stand to the Mound Stand. For the NatWest Final it will show the view from the TMS commentary box providing an extra dimension for TMS listeners in far-flung corners of the globe.

Listeners to the Oval broadcast rated the sound quality as excellent, and welcomed the lack of interruptions for news and shipping forecasts. Internet listeners received full, uninterrupted transmission of the programme from 10:30am to 7:30pm including the behind the scenes chat between the commentators and the studio control room before going 'on air' with BBC Radio 4 and ABC.

Unlike conventional broadcasting experiments the TMS team received immediate feedback via Internet e-mail. Apart from encouraging more coverage of TMS on the Internet, mailers were also provided commentator Jonathan Agnew with remedies for his upset stomach - plus a selection of 'virtual cakes' and even a 'virtual bouquet of flowers'.

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