Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

BT's Champions League viewing figures continue to attract scrutiny

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/...al-for-fa-cup/

"BT faces a far tougher challenge keeping hold of exclusive rights to Uefa’s club competitions in the new year after less than 400,000 people watched its free-to-air coverage of Manchester City’s 4-0 Champions League defeat at Barcelona. A rare airing of Manchester United outside pay-TV drew even fewer eyeballs the following night as the media giant’s hopes of securing another three-year deal arguably suffered their biggest blow yet.

Analysis by Telegraph Sport of the ratings of BT Sport Showcase – which replaced ITV1 as the Champions League’s free-to-air station last year – show they are still shockingly low halfway through this season’s group stage. An average of only 236,666 people have watched the three matches involving English teams on the channel, with Leicester’s historic opening game attracting just 160,000 viewers. That compares to the average of almost five million who watched play‑off round and group-stage fixtures involving Premier League sides on ITV two seasons ago.

Telegraph Sport revealed earlier this year that Showcase ratings in last season’s group stage had been so poor Uefa’s marketing agency, Team, was planning either to demand a better free-to-air offering in its next UK TV contract or simply allow all matches to be put behind a paywall.

A lack of public awareness of BT’s Freeview channel also led to more people watching its subscription-only coverage, a pattern that has continued this season. More than 1.2 million tuned in to the Barca-City game on BT Sport 2, while almost 1.4 million watched United beat Fenerbahce 4-1 in the Europa League on the same channel the following evening, compared with only 381,000 on Showcase."

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

It's hardly surprising that so few tune into these games when there's no publicity about them being on a free to air channel at all! I only know they're on Showcase because I read this forum. and my mother only knows because I pass the news on to her!
Of course BT want all of us to pay to watch and don't want to publicise that you can watch for free

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

Agreed. If they made more an effort with the channel even if they showed historical matches and documentaries or less popular sports to ensure it was a full-time channel then people may watch those matches.

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

Champions League awareness is soo bad on BT. Advertising on Sky was soo much better but that of course would be due to having rights to more viewed programming.

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

BBC retain their non exclusive ATP world tour finals rights until 2018

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/b..._finals_rights

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

The latest bond film Spectre is now a world premiere on Sky cinema in 4K / ultra HD

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

BT Sport sign landmark boxing deal with Frank Warren and BoxNation.

http://www.boxnation.com/boxing-news...and-boxnation/

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

Good find, Den. I suspect a VM deal will follow. That channel has always lost money so this looks like a long-term sensible solution.

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

Well Virgin better start getting their skates on as there will be some who will be tempted by this news Andrew especially those who love their boxing.

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

On top of the Boxnation announcement BT has revealed details of its “next-generation” TV service.

http://www.seenit.co.uk/bt-unveils-n...-all-new-look/

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

This decline in interest of sport by younger people might be a signal that the cost of football rights may start to level out soon.

http://advanced-television.com/2016/...-sport-waning/

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

I wonder if BT are following the path of Setanta (and VM to an extent) and will also be adding Premier Sports & Racing UK to their sports package?

They get to offer standalone channels at a bargain price, whilst the standalone channels benefit by having many small subs to their channels as opposed to a few large ones.

Their extra reach may also benefit their advertising rates too.

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

Info from another thread:

Eurosport announced today that it is going to show Pro12 rugby.

For those on the M/Player package MB says that some games will be on Eurosport Extra (AKA Quest).

I never knew that Eurosport used Quest as an overflow channel (or to promote their offering), whichever is the case.

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

Me neither. I guess now that Eurosport is 100% owned by Discovery, it can use Quest in this way.

Re: ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news
 

Eurosports Pro12 rights are just for Italy and in the UK it's still on Sky, at least as far as I am aware