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

Don't see in it number of channels, as the primary "broadcast" method of these companies are their streaming services now, but see it in how big of a share of the sports market would the combination have, especially on specific sports like football.

---------- Post added at 15:17 ---------- Previous post was at 15:12 ----------

Any Sky/WBD merger, would in itself only be a stepping stone until one of the Big Tech gobbles them up, in the same way that its believed that Apple will bid for Disney in the next two years.

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

I’m not as convinced as you that the studios are all simply big tech wormfood… I think we’d already be in that arms race if that was the case and given the pain Amazon went through for a terrible asset like MGM, I’m not yet convinced big tech really wants the bother of running a legacy studio business if they can build something bespoke and play for talent and licensing themselves.

Apple and Disney feel like a natural fit but even then I don’t seem convinced they’d have the enthusiasm to blow 150 Billion on it and deal with legacy assets and theme parks.

More inclined to think we may see the current 5 turn into 3 or 4 much like the record industry now stands.

Let’s come back here in a few years and see right or wrong we were haha!

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

Wormfood in the sense, that the Big Tech want to be the Hollywood players. Whether they buy the legacy companies or oubid them for rights, who can know for sure, but the tech cos have shown their hand with all this bidding for sports rights. They can't all win, can they?

On reduction of companies, yes. If Sky and WBD merge, that brings the number down of the legacy companies from the original Big Six hollywood companies to the Big Four, but then on top of that there is Apple, Amazon, Google and Mirosoft. I really don't think that eight global streamers can exist and all be profitable, but we'll see.

On MGM, that's early days yet. We'll have to wait for the first "Amazon" James Bond film, to see how that all pans out.

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

There’s never been more actors in the market (or threatening to join the market). Could it be demonstrated it’d harm consumer choice? Threaten the value of rights to leagues and sporting bodies?

(I’m not saying they would allow it, but previously Sky have been far more dominant in the market on their own, with regulation of the wholesale price of Sky Sports 1 and 2).

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

Yeah, as I see, it's just a change of the name badge.

Sky used to be top dog and in the near future it'll be Amazon, Apple etc exchanging blows (keeping it on the sports topic.;)) instead.

Whether it was better before when Sky controlled everything, or whether we prefer a multiude of players now, is debateable. It certainly ain't cheaper now, that's for sure.

Edit: just to step back from that for a second jfman, there are multiple players, but the point of the Big Tech cos is they are trillion/2 trillion dollar companies. They can compete with each other, but no one else on the planet has their deep pockets. So, we need to look at them four and then everyone else. In that context. Disney, Warner, Universal, Paramount etc are tier two, Big Tech is tier one.

A massive gap between the two tiers of companies.

---------- Post added at 17:22 ---------- Previous post was at 17:00 ----------

And just to add, if the new regulator wants to be anal about it, they can do what's been happening in the States. So, they take the premiership rights and slice them into even smaller bundles of rights. This would allow more companies to join in the bidding process and restrictions could be put in place on how many sets of rights any one company can own.

Wouldn't it be "great", if four or five companies owned premiership rights and if you wanted to watch all the matches, you would have to pay for several services....?

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

VirginMedia #534 has had Sky Sports F1 HDR for a few days now - and it now has the on-screen dog too.

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

I think the danger there is thinking the 4 aforementioned tech giants all want to do the same thing and have the same strategic intent when there’s no way to presume that at all.

Apple and Amazon? Sure they’re spending money on tv, film and sports now but it’s not core to their business, it’s a way in to their ecosystem and services… if the day comes they realise all that cash is not worth the outlay to the larger business, they have no attachments and they will cut, run and it will be brutal. Right now? It’s a nice way to go to parties and meet stars but if it drags down the balance sheet? Different story! They won’t burn cash endlessly.

Google? They already have the biggest streaming platform on the planet and their only move in sports so far is a product that everyone thinks is too expensive anyway and it’s most likely going to be used to as a marketing and retention tool for a linear tv package!

Microsoft - they have a space in gaming the others don’t or have utterly failed at…. And right now I think they’re more likely to sink cash into OpenAI than Formula One rights.

(And honestly I see Google burning cash in the AI space than the tv business going forward)

Honestly if sports is going to be solved somehow I actually think it may be in the TVOS space… accessibility, bundling and discoverability is going to be the secret sauce I think and that’s where I think the real battle could end up being fought for streaming as a whole - and I actually think multiple streamers can exist…. Tv has never been an all or nothing business and no reason why that changes… I think the future ends up looking rather similar to the past!

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

Agree.

The tv business may not be the core business for Big Tech, but they're outspending the traditional companies now, in several different areas.

It's hardly set in stone and as you say, the companies have different priorities which they can change about. But at the moment, they are spending billions on sports content. I believe that will continue and will impact the existing media companies, like with DirecTV's loss of its sports rights.

And on the last point yes, its all about the "home"" screen. What interface do consumers see when they switch on their devices and who controls that interface.

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

In which areas are big tech outspending the incumbents? Apple and Amazon have only dabbled in sports.

The home screen is a good point to raise. It's something that may be more regulated in the UK in the future so the public service broadcasters don't lose out.

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

True, although it's still billions of dabbling, but I take the point.

For global sports rights, it may be different. The recent DAZN deal for NFL rights shows how it may go. (yes, I know DAZN is not Big Tech.:D)

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other...-deal-29157246

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

What are the £ billions deals that Amazon and Apple have dabbled in?

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

Here's what Big Tech has got in the States:

Amazon - NFL ($1B per year)
Apple - MLB, MLS soccer ($2.5 deal)
Google - NFL ($2bn per year), MLB

NBA rights are up next and Big Tech is looking at them.

And muliple articles are saying that Apple is going to bid this year for premiership rights here in the UK.

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

When you consider the size of the market (330m+ people) those are quite small interventions. It’s also worth noting the primary rights (and more expensive!) for NFL games for each team in their home market are still with the likes of CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox paying a combined $11bn a year to 2033.

Apple’s MLS TV deal is a mere $250m a year for (non-exclusive in the US) worldwide rights for a decade.

None of this precludes the possibility that the big tech companies could enter the UK or European market at massive scale for sports rights. Or simply by taking over or merging with incumbent rights holders. I think it’s far from clear it’s the best use of the billions available though.

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

We'll see if they'll try and nab Sky's footie rights this year. If they do that, I think the direction will be clear.

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

We may have to wait a little longer than that, as this article says the auction starts next year. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...TV-rights.html