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Originally Posted by OLD BOY
What BT charge VM is one thing, but I would not have thought they would be dictating to VM how they include BT Sports in VM's package.
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But they don't need to dictate that, they only need to set the price at a level where it would be uneconomical for VM to consider adding BT Sports to the XL package. Just as it would be uneconomical to add Sky Sports to the XL package.
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VM may well decide to provide BT Sports on the same basis as ESPN and reallocate the remaining costs within the business.
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Not if BT set the price at a level where it would be uneconomical to do this. It didn't really matter to ESPN, as long as they got the cash it didn't matter which VM package the channels were in. The situation is different for BT, they have their own fledgeling platform to protect. It would be a very bad move to make their sports channels available to a competitor in an attractively priced package when they need to get new subscribers on their own platform.
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I believe the recent price hike does have something to do with the increased cost of football rights and that they would have anticipated having to pay rather more as a result (even if ESPN had retained these rights). Whilst they may not have known exactly what the content provider would be charging when they set the price increase, they would have had a pretty good idea.
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Yes, that's what you and many sports fans would like to believe.
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Why else would they have put prices up by this amount?
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They put prices up every year and many subscribers avoid or mitigate the price rise with a retentions deal. The price rise wasn't that large, perhaps it was just to give them extra negotiating power to get the additional channels they have recently added to the platform.
There are also several additional HD channels reported to be joining shortly. It would be interesting to know why they haven't been added at the same time as the SD channels. Could VM possibly be holding these back to sweeten the blow should the XL package lose the ESPN channels???