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Originally Posted by 1andrew1
It's quite easy. Firstly, there is no true national competitor to the Sky platform in terms of a good range of entertainment channels and a good range of sports channels.
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Sky has developed its sports and entertainment package for over 25 years, they currently own the primary package to the premier league and have the right to sell to whoever they like (bar the ofcom ruling that Virgin managed to win). They own the latest entertainment channel of dessire (Sky Atlantic) by securing
exclusive rights and by pricing it in such a way that keeps it as a loss leader.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1andrew1
If BT were able to sell the Sky Sports channels on YouView and provide more entertainment channels on YouView, it would offer genuine competition to Sky which would exert downward pressure on prices.
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A little utopian, Basically BT will need to get help from ofcom like Virgin did but it turned out the ofcom ruling was in fact unlawful when Sky challenged it in court.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1andrew1
Secondly, most people buy the sports packages for one reason - the Premier League. If BT Sport and Sky Sports have similar ranges of Premier League matches in the future then BT Sport and Sky Sports become close substitutes and some people will chose the cheaper of the two providers, thus exerting downward pressure on prices.
It's all about close substitutes here, not identical substitutes.
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Unfortunately the packages are made and sold by the Premier League, do they want to break up their cash cow. Together with legal rules about what can be shown on UK TV (e.g. you can't televise any game between 3pm & 5pm on Saturday), the bottom line is that it's going to take an awful lot of money to challenge Skys' strangle hold. 879 million for Champions League was the first coo, how much will Premier league rights cost?
We need the government to step in before we have a glimmer of hope that prices fall for the humble punter.