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,