BT Sport

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I'm sure BT are looking to ape Sky's approach when they first started. For years heavy, OTT investment in live sporting rights lead to the company making yearly losses with the long-term plan to increase share of the market/subscribers. BT will be satisfied with taking dents in profits if it can relay to the shareholders and increasing stake in an increasingly lucrative pay television market. Sky's problem is that BT had far, far deeper pockets than they have.

It wouldn't shock me if BT took far more, maybe even the lions share, of the next round of Premier League contracts. They already came from absolutely nowhere to scoop 25% of rights before they even had a channel to put them on. Since then they've snapped up more and among other things they have exclusive or shared rights to the FA Cup, Serie A, Bundesliga, AVIVA Premiership, MLS and from 2015 the Champions League and Europa League. And it's only the beginning. I fully expect them to target even more. If they maintain or add to that portfolio plus get an even greater share of the PL games next time around, Sky are in huge shit.

For all their movie channels, Sky Atlantic, HBO tie-ups and original dramas - Sky's bread and butter is live football and if they lose that it's very difficult to see how their business won't be wounded by that.
 
Plugsy said:
I'm sure BT are looking to ape Sky's approach when they first started. For years heavy, OTT investment in live sporting rights lead to the company making yearly losses with the long-term plan to increase share of the market/subscribers. BT will be satisfied with taking dents in profits if it can relay to the shareholders and increasing stake in an increasingly lucrative pay television market. Sky's problem is that BT had far, far deeper pockets than they have.

It wouldn't shock me if BT took far more, maybe even the lions share, of the next round of Premier League contracts. They already came from absolutely nowhere to scoop 25% of rights before they even had a channel to put them on. Since then they've snapped up more and among other things they have exclusive or shared rights to the FA Cup, Serie A, Bundesliga, AVIVA Premiership, MLS and from 2015 the Champions League and Europa League. And it's only the beginning. I fully expect them to target even more. If they maintain or add to that portfolio plus get an even greater share of the PL games next time around, Sky are in huge shit.

F/or all their movie channels, Sky Atlantic, HBO tie-ups and original dramas - Sky's bread and butter is live football and if they lose that it's very difficult to see how their business won't be wounded by that.
That is a good point. If they lose the PL do they have enough other significant sport for people to keep the Sports channels, also a lot of their shows on the other channels end up on free to view TV eventually anyway. Maybe people will just wait and watch the shows for nothing. ITV and BBC might start bidding against SKY for shows. They might both have been waiting for this moment.
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Re the share price drop, it's also worth noting that the bskyb shares were artificially high anyway.
 
They shot up after they had a better than expected first quarter.

It's still a huge drop, but from a higher than normal place to begin with. They'd have been coming down from that high point anyway, just not that much that quickly.
 
Ah, I wasn't sure if BT just sponsored the channel or owned them. So they're a well funded operation.

I would have no problem if they destroy Sky who have treated their customers like dirt from day one.
 
Irwhine said:
Ah, I wasn't sure if BT just sponsored the channel or owned them. So they're a well funded operation.

I would have no problem if they destroy Sky who have treated their customers like dirt from day one.
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Same here. It would be a delight to see Murdoch's pride and joy wiped off the face of the earth.
 
Irwhine said:
Ah, I wasn't sure if BT just sponsored the channel or owned them. So they're a well funded operation.

I would have no problem if they destroy Sky who have treated their customers like dirt from day one.
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I wouldn't expect any better from BT if I were you.
 
The only redeeming feature to sky sports is the hot girls on SSN and Gary Neville being himself. They even tried to feck up the latter by adding yet another Liverpool twat.
 
Rado_N said:
I wouldn't expect any better from BT if I were you.
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No, quite possibly not but given the choice I'd have anyone over Sky. They are a terrible company with zero respect for their customers. I also hate all of what their wider media organisation stand for so that adds to it.
 
I don't see how this is a good thing for us (the customer) right now. I'm just expecting that we'll end up paying more. BT or Sky will go to war over other packages, which we will then pay more for. BT might even bring out their own TV service to take on Sky and Virgin, which in all likelihood will be worse than Sky.
 
In a way I'm glad that Sky have lost out on this package and their shares took a hit for a day but on the other, as I don't currently have any PPV TV it will mean no Champions League football that I can watch for free on ITV. Hopefully BT Sport doesn't have that many customers by that point and they sell some to ITV in a similar way that they have done with Virgin for this years Premier League package.
 
BT are really the first company with means to do so, to take on Sky. VM had a half-arsed attempt, but that was mainly targeted and housewives. BT are going for Sky's jugular of live football and unlike Setanta they have the resources to do it.
 
Sorry for my ignorance but I have not kept up to date with this, can someone please sum up in a nut shell?

Will BT take ALL champions league games from ITV and SKY? And when will this happen?
 
Plugsy said:
BT are really the first company with means to do so, to take on Sky. VM had a half-arsed attempt, but that was mainly targeted and housewives. BT are going for Sky's jugular of live football and unlike Setanta they have the resources to do it.
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You don't think ESPN had the resources to do it?
 
Count Orduck said:
You don't think ESPN had the resources to do it?
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Not n the same sense. It was clear ESPN were happy to be a junior 'partner' to Sky. There was cross promotion of events on either channel from time to time. I think ESPNUK wanted a slice of the UK market rather than to become a major player in it. The parent company of course has vast resources but I don't believe there was any ever intention of taking on Sky. Indeed it seemed as if Sky were only too pleased to pass off one or two contracts that were considered less important to them.
 
pocco said:
And what will be the end result for the customer?
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I'm not sure. I don't think, 20+ years on from premium sport being largely the exclusive possession of pay-TV providers, that the consumer is in a particularly bad place as it is.
 
Plugsy said:
BT are really the first company with means to do so, to take on Sky. VM had a half-arsed attempt, but that was mainly targeted and housewives. BT are going for Sky's jugular of live football and unlike Setanta they have the resources to do it.
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It's not really their jugular, at least not yet, apparently CL football accounts for only 3% of viewers.
 
Rado_N said:
It's not really their jugular, at least not yet, apparently CL football accounted for only 3% of viewers.
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I'm not sure I think even they believe that, given how they apparently sought to lobby UEFA at the last minute to try and get them to delay/reconsider the pending/imminent deal with BT. But I believe those figures also show that the PL accounted for 18% of their viewers. Now although 3% is a much lower figure than 18% we all know that had Sky lost the PL the impact on their overall business would be far, far greater than just a loss of a share of 18% of their audience. Similarly the loss of the CL will have a much greater impact than indicated by the 3% figure.
 
Plugsy said:
I'm not sure I think even they believe that, given how they apparently sought to lobby UEFA at the last minute to try and get them to delay/reconsider the pending/imminent deal with BT. But I believe those figures also show that the PL accounted for 18% of their viewers. Now although 3% is a much lower figure than 18% we all know that had Sky lost the PL the impact on their overall business would be far, far greater than just a loss of a share of 18% of their audience. Similarly the loss of the CL will have a much greater impact than indicated by the 3% figure.
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18% of the viewing, but probably the reason 90% of those people have sky in the first place.
 
The Neviller said:
Yep. We watch a lot of Sky in our house, but if it wasn't for the football I'd probably make do with Freeview.
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My father in Belfast was telling me about the free tv he has up there. I think it's something to do with talk talk but he reckons he can watch any program that was broadcast in the last week on any channel without recording it.
 
The Neviller said:
Yep. We watch a lot of Sky in our house, but if it wasn't for the football I'd probably make do with Freeview.
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I don't have Sky Sport but have MUTV. Wouldn't want to lose that. I have BT Sport at minute, but if they hike that up as well, then BT Sport will go as well. I will watch United on MUTV and just watch MOTD. Stuff the lot of them. BT will be trying to make sure everyone has their Broadband and TV boxes.
 
Plugsy said:
I'm not sure I think even they believe that, given how they apparently sought to lobby UEFA at the last minute to try and get them to delay/reconsider the pending/imminent deal with BT. But I believe those figures also show that the PL accounted for 18% of their viewers. Now although 3% is a much lower figure than 18% we all know that had Sky lost the PL the impact on their overall business would be far, far greater than just a loss of a share of 18% of their audience. Similarly the loss of the CL will have a much greater impact than indicated by the 3% figure.
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I think I read 3% and 19% respectively, but yea you're right that the impact will likely be greater than that.
 
I am not desperate enough to pay more than I do now to BT to watch CL football. I actually find it boring until the knockout stages. Would rather watch the PL, we will have to see if SKY come up with a good sports package offer, not sure they can justify the price now without CL football.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
I am not desperate enough to pay more than I do now to BT to watch CL football. I actually find it boring until the knockout stages. Would rather watch the PL, we will have to see if SKY come up with a good sports package offer, not sure they can justify the price now without CL football.
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They're not going to reduce the price, no chance.
 
If you consider that Real Madrid vs United received 2m viewers on Sky for the first leg, that's a huge number. I think the total number of Sky Sports subscribers is around 6m. If that's the case that's a third of their most premium/lucrative market showing an interest in just one (admittedly plumb) tie in the competition.

Now of course not everyone who has Sky sports has it for the football and not everyone who has it for the football has it for the CL and not everyone who has it for the CL would have been interested in watching United - but it's still a significant portion of the audience that at least have the CL as one of the major reasons for subscribing.
 
Irwhine said:
My father in Belfast was telling me about the free tv he has up there. I think it's something to do with talk talk but he reckons he can watch any program that was broadcast in the last week on any channel without recording it.
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I'm guessing many people in NI will be getting free CL football from the (Southern) Irish TV stations after BT Sport come in anyway. They'll just have to ignore the terrible punditry.
 
Would be much better if there was one channel who had all the football, every single game and charged a premium.
 
charleysurf said:
I'm guessing many people in NI will be getting free CL football from the (Southern) Irish TV stations after BT Sport come in anyway. They'll just have to ignore the terrible punditry.
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I know around the border they can pick up RTE and TV3, but I'm not sure if the signal goes all the way to Belfast.
 
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