Quote:
Originally Posted by Superblade7
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.
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. |
That's very well written and its nice to see such a clear answer regarding the sports channels, rather than the usual rants.
The only reason prices are going up though, is because Sky will not lower their prices even though they lost the Champions League rights. It really has very little to do with BT getting CL rights.
If Tesco were to save £400 million by not buying one brand of coffee (that ASDA gained exclusive selling rights to) I can be pretty certain that the money saved would be pumped into making the price of the remaining coffee lower and giving better deals on many different products for customers. I doubt greatly they would pocket it and spend it elsewhere within Tesco and give very little back to their to their loyal customers.
If a third party takes a package of PL games from Sky in the next round of bidding, then it will be up to Sky to lower their prices. If they don't, then yes people will pay more.
Ultimately, the reason there is not a price war is because Sky won't, and do not need to, begin one. They will never start one as things stand, because people still chose to pay the prices they set - whether people pay the cost by making savings in their life elsewhere, or can afford to pay for it comfortably within their budgets it is up to them. Sky wont care where the money comes from, as long as it continues to roll in. It is fine for people to pay for SS, if they want to, but they must accept that prices will continue to increase if they do. Coming on here and stating the obvious gets us no where.
I agree that SS is the only place for a lot of sports (goodness only knows I miss a lot stuff I would like to watch) and I tried to allude to that in my last post, and I agree that is unfair for the general sporting fan. Sadly though the only way to start to lower prices is for people to vote with their wallets. It will never change otherwise.