Quote:
Originally Posted by ocav
Thing is, BT are using the channel to bring in broadband subscribers. If they didn't have that arm of the business they would be up s*** creek without a paddle.
Sky Sports are available with a quick phone call to over 15 million people. 15 million people who already very likely have card details attached to their account and no need to fill in name, address etc. (not counting TalkTalk and BT Vision subscribers, or the ease of accessing it via Now TV albeit at rip off rates)
BT is not that easy to get access too. If you check the Sky forums there are so many people who don't have a clue how to access it and when they do find out they don't want to pay for it via a 3rd party, they want it all in one. Plus the 4 million who currently can't pay their premiums to access it without getting a new box to hook up to a dish, or switching to a different provider.
Unfortunately people don't want BTs TV offering, especially if they are used to Sky/BT as it is in effect a spruced up Freeview. BT will make a hell of a loss on these channels, and it's quite clear that the 500,000 people who have gained access to it (by paying or by being through BT Broadband) are not actually watching it, 1000viewers for a sports show with a high profile name as host.
Apparently next year, everyone will have too pay and it won't be with BT Broadband. Currently only 23,000 people think it's worth paying for, if I was a shareholder, I wouldn't be happy.
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It would depend if the shareholders were more interested in the BB take-up, if so, they would probably be somewhat happier. Equally the shareholders must surely be aware that if you offer struggling families something for "free" or a monthly cost of £12/£15 a month, the majority of people will take the "free" option.
I would also think that die-hard football and rugby fans will pay for it next year, as they did with ESPN.
If I were a share holder though, I would be happy to take small amount of money from VM's reasonably large customer base, rather than a larger amount of nothing from none of VM's customer base.
