Quote:
Originally Posted by Horizon
Why can you not accept that Amazon or one of the other tech giants, may well bid billions for future sports rights, based on this successful test?
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'May'
Yes I do think these things could happen.
However there is nothing unique or special about England, despite what it may think, so I'd be surprised if the first sojourn into major sports rights (those that cost billions) will be the English Premier League.
You must however accept that this 'test', at minimal cost, bears no resemblance to paying £5bn for sports rights and charging people £30/40 per month every single month of the year.
There's a fallacy that it could be lower cost - however I've no idea where that comes from. Lower costs only comes from being spread across a larger customer base. Where are these people who want to watch Premiership football that can neither get Sky, Virgin Media, BT or Now TV (which I acknowledge is a Sky product)?
Those involved to this point exercise profit maximisation and have experience in the market. Why would/should anyone else be
better at it?
There's also a paradox where the more successful the test is at gaining/retaining Prime subscribers the
less likely they are to bid for rights. It's a small investment to gain a lot of low hanging fruit. Is £5bn a good investment to get
more subscribers taking a product over and above Prime and likely to get a return on investment?
I should point out I've never, ever questioned whether larger players
could join the market - I've only questioned how they fund it and get a return on investment over a three year contract. A question that remains outstanding.
I've also always acknowledged that Sky is a Comcast product - we are already in the hands of global players.