Discovery take over Eurosport
 

http://www.theguardian.com/media/201...ague-tv-rights

Just been reading the above article, interesting to note that the chairman of LG also has almost 30% of the voting rights in Discovery. I wonder if this and the suggestion that Eurosport could be going after the holy grail Premier League football rights may start to give VM a bit more leverage in other areas.

The next round of Premier League rights bidding is due to start later this year, surely Discovery would have not rushed this through if they did not have intentions.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

I think we'll see more in the way of French, German and possibly MLS football on Eurosport. Possibly conference. I can't see them going for premiership rights at the moment but they may do in the future.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

IMO Eurosport will continue pretty much as they are now, they have the rights to the biggest and best cycling races, winter sports and Tennis. I believe they will continue to show the less prestigious football tournaments U18,21,African nations cup etc.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Just imagine if Eurosport got at least one package from Sky (I think its all sold as packages-happy to be corrected) and were to charge for it. Then imagine VM aka LG bartering a "free" deal for said package from Eurosport on XL and VIP. Great value for VM viewers, less so for SS paying customers.

Most probably a pipe dream, but you never know!

On another note, there would be a good market share for Football League (Old division 2-4 - yup showing my age a bit) rights. Many people who are not glory supporters and support their local teams as much as they can afford to, would probably love to watch their team on TV 5-6 times a season.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Isn't it just as likely, given their friendly-ish relationship with Sky, that they would focus on winning one of the BT packages - most likely not the first picks but the other lower priority games which BT might try to bid less for?

In my opinion though this next rights auction will be too high for what they are willing to pay.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

My trail of thought is why rush this deal if they did not need to? The fact it was concluded 12 months early to me singnals that a serious bid will be coming in.

I would not say that Discovery were friendly with Sky, in fact maybe the opposite after what happened with the launch of Quest. A friendd of a friend was working at Discovery at the time and the reason Quest launched 5 months late was due to Sky enforcing a contract, stating that Discovery was not allow to screen its content on FTA TV until 3 years after its broadcast on pay tv. The original plan for Quest was different to what we got.

Discovery launch all their channels on the Sky platform because it is the biggest and advert revenue plays a big part so they have to be on the biggest platform.

However the links between LG and Discovery could make for an interesting future.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Yeah, the general feeling is that this deal has been rushed through to allow them to enter the next BPL rights auction.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Premiership football on Eurosport would be great, even if they only won 23 games. I would not be happy however if Eurosport became a subscription channel as a result.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

me too. But to pay for the ever increasing price the EPL commands it may be a consideration.

The splitting up of the rights for premier league games was supposed to be in the interest of fans. it is having quite the opposite effect. Suppose Eurosport did bid and win some rights you could have a situation where 3 or more channels -possibly all subscription based- showed it.

Many fans would be priced out of watching all the games available if they had to pay effectively 3 different providers.

i have too say as time goes by the more disillusioned i became with the sheer greed the Premier League represents. It does not really care for the fans just the £

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Eurosport's current UK revenue is less than £60m a year so I can't see how the Premier League would work on the channel without a subscription. But I can't see Eurosport going down this route, who wants to get caught in the BT-Sky crossfire?

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Readers of the ESPN BT Sports etc thread will know my views on this. I will state them again, in a slightly different way on here due to the nature of a possible third bidder. If a third provider offers PL football at a cheaper price than BT Sport (which people can get for "free" via VM or previously BT BB) or SS. It is not their fault if prices go up. The price only goes up for consumers if they choose to pay three separate providers for EPL football. If Sky lose packages, it is up to them to pass on the savings to customers - pure and simple, there is no grey area in the mater. If Sky syphon money saved from SS to fund other programming, that is simply wrong. If people know Sky are doing this and still continue to pay over the top for a (theoretically) decreasing sporting portfolio of events, whilst producing (imo) poor programming elsewhere, long may they continue to rip people off.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

I'm not sure it's that black and white. At the time Sky were no longer able to purchase all the packs, the number of matches in those packs, along with the price, went up. Sky have fewer packs, but more matches and at a higher cost, than before. So even though other broadcasters have popped up there aren't actually any savings for Sky to pass on and their customers are getting more matches for their money.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

I remember watching Eurosport (and Screensport) when Astra first launched, and still now watch something on Eurosport at least weekly.

I love the sports they cover - just finished watching the Nordic 5 peaks challenge, and with the exception of the sometimes amateurish commentating, think that this is an excellent "free" channel.

Would hate to see them entering a bidding war for football rights.

Football is available pretty much widespread, diverse sports are not.

Leave alone I say !

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

If they get French and German football that will leave some mighty holes in BT schedules...

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

100% agree, I use it for winter sports coverage that wouldnt see light of day on BT /Skysports (and very little on BBC),
apart from the poor timekeeping of scheduled programs (this where a red button could really work) its a fantatstic "free" channel(s) and hate to lose this under a paywall,

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Eurosport have this year lost a big chunk of their programming with the loss of the WTA tennis tour.

Regardless of taste, it's a big chunk out of their schedule that they have to make up with something and I can't see minority sports like cross country ski-ing or other sports like Belgium football having much impact on viewers or sponsorship.

Although I realise that being a Europe wide TV station they cater for many many needs but even they realise, I'm sure, they can't spread themselves too thin.

They were and now are even more so a big company. They should go for some EPL games IMO... any diversity of matches and channels can only help in the long run.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Hopefully a scenario unlikely to happen.

---------- Post added at 12:07 ---------- Previous post was at 12:04 ----------

If prices keep going up and up as is highly likely then our family will just say enough is enough and subscribe to the streaming services which offer much better value.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

How would that work financially without subscription revenue? Eurosport's UK revenue is less than £60m per year. In 2012, BT agreed to pay £246m a year for two EPL packs and in the next auction will probably bid even more. So one pack could easily cost £150m in the next auction v revenue of £60m. OK, advertising might rise a bit and Eurosport might be able to squeeze a bit more money out of Sky and VM but nothing like £150m! So Eurosport would probabaly have a turnover of about £70m pa and would be losing about £130m pa. It's not a one-off cost eg the laying of cables, it's an ongoing one. Conclusion: Not going to happen!

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Yes, I agree. This kind of outlay is beyond Eurosport on its present model.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Absolutely agree , they also cover cycling better than anyone else.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

If Eurosport did enter the Premiership bidding war and won, I would see them setting up a separate premium channel for this rather than taking their existing channels off FTA.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

I just can't see how this can work financially. It couldn't for Setanta and ESPN who were up against one strong company, Sky, with far lower costs for EPL rights. Eurosport would be against two strong companies, BT and Sky. It works for these companies as they market a TV service and broadband. Eurosport does not.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

As Sky are not permitted to take all the Premiership packages, does it matter that they are in the bidding with Sky? Against Eurosport, I agree with you that Sky would win, but what about the smaller package?

Who would Eurosport be up against for that apart from BT? However, BT have deep pockets, so Eurosport are unlikely to win against them either!

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

I think basically we agree. Unless you have a TV platform, you can't afford EPL rights as bidders who own a TV platform will out-bid you as they can afford to cross-subsidise their bids from selling TV/broadband/telephony. Even Al Jazeera who were rumoured to have taken part in the 2012 auction did not win any and they have very deep pockets!

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Reports circulating today suggest that LG are looking to take a 49% stake in F1, that intention is to help take the rights to Eurosport.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

I wonder if this is the beginning of the pan-european rights bonfire the EU want.

With the ruling last year that says a rights-holder can't limit a european broadcaster to only sell to subscribers within their 'area', and their current investigation into Hollywood movie rights with a view to making the same thing happen, it may be that Eurosport end up buying the rights for the PL and broadcasting it all over Europe. They might charge, I guess it's up to how much advertisers/sponsors will pay.

It will be a huge challenge to Sky, as it will mean actual competition (because the same games will be available on more than one broadcaster) rather than the make believe competition they have now.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

I don't think it is, that's more an investigation and ultimately more about people being able to access content they've bought at home. You can do that with a book or DVD if you're on holiday in France but you can't do that with Sky Movies or iPlayer, for example.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

It's only a matter of time a third provider will enter the bidding for PL rights and get some of the rights. Sky sports with reduced premier league games won't decrease their subscription prices and would hark on about PGA tour golf, WWE wrestling and 50 Premier league games. BT Sports if they had reduced coverage would just bang their drum about the rights they hold whilst the new provider would smack on a ten pound a month fee as well.

Its inevitable that another 3rd provider will enter the game shortly and prices will go up even further. It's utterly depressing how expensive football has got since they forced the rights to be split up.

Great for greedy premier league, great for other sports providers to make money, horrible decision for the customer

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

It's not a horrible decision for the customer. Sky and BT simply can not justify not passing on savings to customers. If Sky/BT pay less than they did on the previous auction for less packages, it means they have (a) saved money from their budget and (b) paid less than was paid last time round. There should be no excuses for not reducing prices. If they choose to pump more funds into other channels, then people should cancel sports and tell Sky they do not want their sports subscriptions to subsidize content on other channels which we all pay for in our basic package prices.

Customers will only suffer if they choose to pay more for many, many, many, average to boring football games on other channels. If customers choose to be ripped off, it is up to them!!!!

The power is in the subscribers hands. I will continue to say that I have no sympathy for any possible rising sporting costs.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Why is it inevitable? I've seen no evidence to suggest this will happen. With the fierce competition between BT and Sky, the rights were found not to be worthwhile for the likes of beIN Sport and ESPN, two of the best funded sports broadcasters in the world.

---------- Post added at 12:40 ---------- Previous post was at 12:37 ----------

Sky charges what it does for Sky Sports to maximise its profits. It does not increase or decrease its prices as its rights costs decrease or rise. If it could charge more for Sky Sports, it would. If it lost a substantial amount of rights eg the EPL it might have to reduce its price but otherwise not. And this scenario is unlikely.

Re: Discovery take over Eurosport
 

Conspiracy theory: Liberty global that owns Discovery who have a major share in Eurosport, bid for the pl football then does a deal with BT so that they are able to use the ducts to expand their network.

nedds to stop thinking too much