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Originally Posted by harry_hitch
BIB. You still have a choice for a sports provider. You can choose (BT Sports) a cheaper option for a lesser PL service, but which still has plenty of football from other leagues on it, as well as some high quality other sports. You can choose a very expensive service to watch numerous PL games, as well as some other games from other leagues and plenty of other sports too. Or you can simply choose to pay stupid amounts of money for both.
Quite why people (not just Superbalde) feel they are being forced to take both subscriptions is beyond me. You have a choice of two services, you can make a decision to to save money by only taking one of the services. You must know your own financial budgets. If you want both providers and can afford it, why moan? All businesses will charge as much as people are willing to pay. If you can't afford both, pick the one you can afford.
Going back to the coffee analogy, I will add a thought to it. If Starbucks were the only provider of coffee for a number of years and charged a high price because they knew they had a very good product and a customer base who would pay the money required. Suddendly, Cafe Nero come along and offer a slightly different product which is a little less tasty, but still offers a good quality product at a much cheaper price, what would you do? Would you choose one coffee provider or would you buy two coffees to satiate your tastes?
This is only an extreme hyperthetical situation and I have not posted it to stir things up, merely to make a point. I chose coffee as an example as Superblade used that as an example. You could make the argument better with clothes (do you buy a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt, or a fat face polo shirt, or do you buy both).
I am aware this will rile a number of posters, but I have not written it cause upset, merely make a point about how daft this whole situation sounds to me. I apologize for offence taken by anyone.
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Harry - no offence taken whatsoever. I always enjoy a good debate and it's good to hear differing opinions. However, I just wanted to clarify that my post wasn't a moan simply a viewpoint about competition only being good when you have comparable products.
Quote:
Originally Posted by harry_hitch
We have four big supermarkets in the country, people (mainly) shop at the one that suits their budget and their tastes. If there were 4 PL providers would people blindly pay all 4 companies or choose the one that suits their budget and tastes?
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Your post above supports the point I was trying to get across. If I want a jar of coffee (sorry about all the coffee analogies
) then I have a choice of whether to get this from a local shop, a supermarket, etc, but wherever I choose to get it from and whatever price or brand I choose to pay, I'll end up with a jar of coffee. So therefore competition works as you have choice.
In the current sports tv market, competition hasn't led to choice or price competition as if you take away the Premier League rights, they are different products. If I want Football League, Golf or WWE the only option is Sky Sports or nothing. From the 2015/16 season, if I want Champions League the only choice I have is BT Sports or nothing. So whilst it has been good to increase the amount of football on TV, it has not really led to choice or price wars like competition should.
However, I don't feel that I am in anyway forced to take either or both sports channels. To me pay tv is a luxury that whilst ever I am fortunate enough to be able to afford it, I will have it. However, should my budget get squeezed then the sports channels would be the first to go followed by the basic tv package if necessary.
I will be very interested to see how BT Sport fair from next year as the vast majority of their subscribers will get it 'included' with either BT broadband or Virgin XL tv. I would imagine actual full fee paying subscribers will be quite a low number so if they start charging to recoup some of the massive fee they've paid for Champions League, subscribers numbers may drop and they could go the way of those before them. I know I wouldn't pay for BT Sport as a standalone if it wasn't included in my XL tv pack. I wouldn't be surprised to see them continue with the wholesale agreement with VM beyond the current contract as that way they have a guaranteed income each month as opposed to losing money by trying to go it alone as a standalone.
It'll be interesting to see how it plays out, especially when they do the next Premier League rights auction. However, ultimately due to the lack of choice/competition in this field, the only thing that is certain is that prices will continue to increase.