The revolution will be filmed, then delivered over the internet. The pioneering work of Sussex and Surrey is further evidence that there is a healthy appetite for county cricket. The two, poles apart in wealth and stature, believe that they are at the forefront of something special as, for the first time, supporters will be able to watch county cricket without leaving the office.

In a few years, people will marvel that it all started in a Portakabin in Hove. Barney Douglas, the man behind Sussex TV, which launched in 2005, has led the mini-revolution. Sussex were the first to offer highlights and this season he says that the number of unique users has doubled from last season, to nearly 50,000 a month.

“For a small county, that is really pleasing,” Douglas said. “We were running a subscription service, but we’re about to secure a partner and it will all be free. I imagine next year you will see most of the counties offering the same service. For a lot of people, this is the only way they can follow county cricket.”

The footage is basic, fixed-camera stuff. There are four-minute highlight packages and fly-on-the-wall dressing-room features. The idea grew out of the analyst’s tool of recording matches for players. Last season, the ECB bought the full kit for all the counties with a view to creating a county cricket database.

For the not so princely sum of £20, Sussex TV last season had 600 to 700 subscribers enjoying such things as unique footage inside the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy-winning dressing-room at Lord’s. But Sussex and Surrey decided that numbers are the crucial thing.

“We’ve taken a punt on it, but we think we will show the value to sponsors and that it will pay for itself,” Nathan Ross, Surrey’s communications manager, said.

Lancashire, the only other county offering highlights, have gone for the £20 subscription model and will offer the service from Friday, when Kent visit Old Trafford. So far, they say they have been averaging 1,000 unique users a day on lancs.tv for the free service. “We talked to Sussex and Surrey, they pioneered it,” Ken Grime, Lancashire’s marketing service manager, said.

Surrey TV launched this season and had doubled its unique users to 10,463 (with 52,000 hits) by May. Watchers receive the day’s highlights from up to an hour after play. Mark Church has been their guru. He has also been delivering ball-by-ball commentary for five seasons for BBC London online on all Surrey matches and most counties have followed suit.

Church said that figures for the online commentary have been growing and reached about 65,000 users for the four days of the first LV County Championship match of the season, against Yorkshire at the Brit Oval. “The feedback has been really good,” Church said. “It is the only way people can follow county cricket live. We get things like the brother of Matt Nicholson [the Surrey bowler] e-mailing sledges to us as he listens in Sydney.”

In the future, there will be live-stream footage of county cricket. “We’ve had some demos, it would cost £2,000 a day at the moment,” Douglas said. “But if you can add the live commentary to the stream, you’re really on to something.”