[Dash: CF noob]

Originally Posted by coulsontom

No. Just pointing out that people who are saying that BT somehow can't afford to offer their channels cheaply are wrong.



Sky's record viewing figure was the Manchester Derby last year which peaked at 4.4m. with an average of 4m.

However, they average around 2m viewers per game, some games only 1.5m.

11m peak watched last years FA Cup final on ITV.

United's 2nd leg defeat to Real Madrid averaged 9m.

The point I was trying to make was pretty simple.

If you assume that there are the 6m Sky Sports subscribers, of which on average only 2m ever tune in to watch a game.

And there are 5m BT Broadband subscribers.

It's also sensible to assume that whilst some Sky subscribers may have BT broadband, a lot with have Sky Broadband.

Therefore, you have a hefty chunk of 5m BT subscribers now having access to BT sport channels for free.

You will also get some who move from Sky to BT for BB.

And also some who stay at Sky for BB but still sign up to BT Sport.

So you have BT Sport that will become accessible to at least 5m BT BB users, plus a chunk of the 6m who subscribe to Sky Sports.

Basically, you can envisage BT's matches being available to a wider audience than Sky Sports.

I included ITV's figures because that highlights how people want to watch football but don't want to pay, therefore it's very probable that there's people with BT BB who don't want to pay for sport, but will want to tune in when it's offered to them for free.

If it does bear out that there are higher viewing figures, then BT can extract greater advertising revenue and thereby negate the need to charge.

I highlighted BT's revenue to show that they would only generate in the mid £20m by charging everyone which doesn't cover 10% of the costs of acquiring the rights (let alone paying for "talent").

ie. They're better off trying to get as many people watching as possible and make money out of the advertisements as advertising generates far greater revenue than subscriptions.

Please update your calculator 22.5m per month which is £270m per year.