[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Don’t be daft, jfman - pretty well all football fans will transfer. Football is what excites them and they go where the football is.

A projection not grounded in any economic theory whatsoever.

If football fans will migrate to any package, at any price, surely Sky would just continue to price gouge them?

There comes a breaking point due to the basic principles of supply and demand.

You keep saying if it was that easy, why have they not done it before, but as I said above, that is a ridiculous statement to make, which assumes that nothing changes. Streamed football is not without its problems, including latency, broadband rollout and broadband connectivity and speed, and this would explain why the streamers have not gone in big time yet.

Aha! Once again you see streaming as a distinct market from television as a whole. The same basic principles you discussed above - fans follow the football wherever it will go - would apply to a standalone football channel on satellite, cable, digital terrestrial and dare I say it even streaming.

The cost of operating a channel on this basis is truly buttons compared to the £5bn cost of the rights.

However, as Disney looks to the sports offering that will appeal to UK viewers for its sports stream, as Discovery+ looks for something to attract more subscribers with an interest in sport to bolster Eurosport and as Amazon pore over the results of its experiment with the EPL, there is a significant shift in circumstances that might yet lead to a bid by one of the streamers.

This time next year we will be millionaires, Rodney

You seem to think that Sky has some magical quality that enables the company to make a profit when others cannot. You have not explained why you think that, and it doesn’t make sense. Citing a few failures by other companies doesn’t cut it. There is a profit to be made here, and the big hitting global streamers ain’t done yet. Watch this space.

If by "a few failures" you mean literally everyone else to have entered the market to date.

Of course Sky can make a bid and screen the football on its streamer (although Now is not the most sophisticated of streamers around). But it will face competition from the other streamers, and if it bids too low because it has concluded the same as you, it might have a shock coming.

I'd contest that it is you that seems to think that streamers have some magical quality whereby the basics of economics do not apply to them.

Sky judged the market perfectly in 2019, and the EPL are running scared they would do the same in 2022.

If your bundle has Sky Sports in it, you are having to pay a shedload more every month than if you were not bothered about sport.

Why would a rational customer in the marketplace subscribe to a bundle with Sky Sports if they don't want Sky Sports?

If someone doesn't want all the other tosh, but it wants Sky Sports they can buy Now TV. A streaming product from Sky.