Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

Next year it wont just be Virgin, BT and Sky there wil be a company entering the market with more aggressively. That company is Microsoft. They will be pushing there new Xbox as the entertainment hub for all your viewing. Look at the Xbox in its present form how many things are in that and they are building the next one from the ground up. Look whats coming in the autumn with Smartglass and the way it integrates with TV shows and movies. Its an exciting time we are living in and I said it once and I said it again Virgin should of stayed in the content business as content is king as the way we watch TV is becoming platform agnostic.

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

Yep couldn't agree more , also factor in the rise of connected TV's , Youview , PS3 , Roku , Apple TV etc.

I believe this was the main reason behind BT's purchase of the football rights it also gives them bargaining power when trying to strike a deal for carrying the Sky channels on its Vision platform. BSKYB bought into HBO content for Atlantic to offer its customers , even Netflix have now started to commision some of its own content.

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

If BT and SKY were to enter an alliance on EPL..it might not bode well for Virgin

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

The doomsayers strikes again it seems.:D

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

More a happy thought thread type of comment..potatoes potatoes :D

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

Such eloquent words from the masters hatchet man.:D

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

How desperate are people to see the 38 Premiership games that BT will be showing? 18 of them will be of a top quality, as BT will have first pick of the fixtures, however the other 20 could easily be Wigan Vs. Stoke or West Brom Vs. QPR, no offence meant to fans of these clubs. Alternatively say you're a Norwich City fan or a Swansea fan, how often do you think your team will feature live as part of the 38 games? Maybe once, twice if you are lucky.

Seems BT are in the same position as Setanta Sports back in 2004 when Setanta landed their first football TV deal with the SPL to show 38 games per season:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...em/3489216.stm

SPL football was the only live coverage of football Setanta had. They had 2 separate subscription models. You could subscribe to all 38 games by buying a "season ticket" for £99.99 or alternatively pay £6.00 per game on a PPV basis. I remember buying all 4 Old Firm games. You had to phone Setanta with your debit card and they would sell you a pin number. You had 5 minutes to enter the pin number through your TV remote to access the game.

Would people be interested in buying a £99.99 "season ticket" with BT?

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

What £100 for just 38 matches.:nono:

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

Crazy I know however that's how Setanta started with their SPL coverage, and people up here in Scotland snapped it up. I'll see if I can find Setanta's old advertising campaign from back in 2004.

Here is an interesting article from the Guardian 18 months after the SPL deal:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2005...ball.newsstory

At this point Setanta is still not a seven-days-a-week channel yet now manages to charge £14.00 per month subscription. According to the article only 70,000 took up the SPL season ticket package in it's launch year. At the point of the article being written, 18 months after the launch of Setanta, they have added the Dutch, French, German and Italian premier leagues rights too.

So BT launching with only 38 live English games per season, and nothing else, might not be too far fetched.

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

Yes a interesting read Chad but as we all know Setanta's business model was flawed from the start and BT will have to make sure they don't overplay their hand because if they do they might find that it might backfire on them quite considerably and as a Virgin customer one hopes it is added to the XL pack as one this in turn will help both BT and Virgin in the long run.

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

Which is why Den i think VM will try and do a "wholesale" deal with BT in my view sports subs are high now,and Sky sports is a racing certainty to go up this year,my view is if BT try to sell the 38 games on a standalone basis to VM their sub takers would not amount to a bag of beans even at say £7 a month.

Which is what setanta/ESPN realised with their deal better to have some subs coming in then have hardly any takers.

But back on topic both boxes have their good and bad points.! :erm::erm:

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

I actually thought this was the "ESPN may lose EPL Football" thread:shocked:

Re: TiVo vs Sky+ Benefits
 

:shocked::shocked::shocked: Me too !!!!!!!!


Still at least you can get ESPN/EPL on both Sky/TiVo boxes.:D:D:D