Virgin Sports

[pj 1984]

This might seem a really stupid and obvious question but whats stopping Virgin starting a couple of sports channels and start challenging Sky for the Broadcasting rights of the football and other sports. Find it really annoying having to pay £20 quid a month just for the sports and dont have access to match choice on champions leauge nights just because virgin buy the sports channels from sky to show to virgin customers. Why do Sky hold all the cards and Virgin been hold randsome to them ( in a sense) cheers

[Stuart]

Money. They don't have enough money to compete seriously with Sky when bidding for sports.

[pj 1984]

i see. Is Sky much better off financially than Virgin are i take it?

Originally Posted by pj 1984

This might seem a really stupid and obvious question but whats stopping Virgin starting a couple of sports channels and start challenging Sky for the Broadcasting rights of the football and other sports. Find it really annoying having to pay £20 quid a month just for the sports and dont have access to match choice on champions leauge nights just because virgin buy the sports channels from sky to show to virgin customers. Why do Sky hold all the cards and Virgin been hold randsome to them ( in a sense) cheers

Virgin see themselves as a platform provider now not a broadcaster, e.g selling living, bravo for £160 million

I don't agree though as I see them as bargaining chips with SKY

[Joedm45]

Originally Posted by pj 1984

This might seem a really stupid and obvious question but whats stopping Virgin starting a couple of sports channels and start challenging Sky for the Broadcasting rights of the football and other sports. Find it really annoying having to pay £20 quid a month just for the sports and dont have access to match choice on champions leauge nights just because virgin buy the sports channels from sky to show to virgin customers. Why do Sky hold all the cards and Virgin been hold randsome to them ( in a sense) cheers

As Stuart says, its all about the money. I think the current Sky deal with the premier league is well over a £1bn over 3 seasons (Yes that's a Billion not Million)

There is not many TV companies that can afford that sort of money. However I truly believe IMO that when the TV rights come up for renewal, ESPN might start throwing their financial american muscle into the ring and pull a surprise or two because they are a company that can afford it.

Also, there is a strong rumour that Sky Sports red button will be on VM in 2011 so some good news there

[denphone]

when in 2011 is the Sky Sports red button, we will probably get it in dec 2011 knowing Virgin.

[mersey70]

Originally Posted by denphone

when in 2011 is the Sky Sports red button, we will probably get it in dec 2011 knowing Virgin.

It looks like we are only getting 'some' interactive red button on Sky Sports so make of that what you will although I doubt most of us would have expected to get the full service anyway.

NTL did win a PPV package of 40 Premier League football matches way back in 2000 but subsequently pulled out when they were told they would have to make the games available to Sky customers too but they didn't want to do that, sounds familiar dosen't it!.


http://www.sky.com/shop/sports/home/...y-virginmedia/

Originally Posted by mersey70

It looks like we are only getting 'some' interactive red button on Sky Sports so make of that what you will although I doubt most of us would have expected to get the full service anyway.

NTL did win a PPV package of 40 Premier League football matches way back in 2000 but subsequently pulled out when they were told they would have to make the games available to Sky customers too but they didn't want to do that, sounds familiar dosen't it!.


http://www.sky.com/shop/sports/home/...y-virginmedia/

I hadn't heard that before. Interesting that NTL were quite rightly stopped from offering exclusive content back then but we still see this happening today.

[DeejayAJ]

Virgin sports lineup;
Dungeons & Dragons
Laser tag
Ping pong.

[mersey70]

Originally Posted by ahardie

I hadn't heard that before. Interesting that NTL were quite rightly stopped from offering exclusive content back then but we still see this happening today.

It was the Premier League who stopped it, it wasn't a regulatory decision. There was speculation they were going to bundle it with a higher package, (a bit like ESPN now) but I guess we will never know the full story. It probably worked out well for NTL as the subsequent Premier League PPV offerings from Sky Premiership Plus and ITV Sport Select were not as lucrative as expected.

[zantarous]

IIRC wasn't it more of the case that they realised they could not afford it and make the money back by selling it PPV.

Copy of a article from the Guardian http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/...ng-rights.html

In June 2000, the dotcom bubble was at its height and dressed down entrepreneurs talked up the potential of a bidding war. But once again Sky, mindful of the need to shift subscriptions to its recently launched digital service, won the day through canny negotiation and big bucks, paying £1.1bn to retain the rights. Disastrously, ITV and NTL were left fighting over the scraps: the former hugely overpaid for Premier League highlights and Football League matches while the latter won a pay-per-view package that it had to hand back when it realised it had offered way over the odds.

I like Sky's monopoly of sports because I know whatever I want to watch will be well broadcast and the pundits and such they hire are always knowledgeable.

Even ESPN is quite far off the quality of Sky so a third competitor would have to have some serious money behind them, something everyone is lacking.

[jb66]

If virgin Sports showed the same game as sky sports at the same time then there would be competition and the prices must come down!

[mersey70]

Originally Posted by zantarous

IIRC wasn't it more of the case that they realised they could not afford it and make the money back by selling it PPV.

Copy of a article from the Guardian http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/...ng-rights.html

Take your pick what the true story was but what I said was certainly all over the press at the time.


http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...al-637516.html

[OLDGOLD]

Originally Posted by Joedm45

As Stuart says, its all about the money. I think the current Sky deal with the premier league is well over a £1bn over 3 seasons (Yes that's a Billion not Million)

There is not many TV companies that can afford that sort of money. However I truly believe IMO that when the TV rights come up for renewal, ESPN might start throwing their financial american muscle into the ring and pull a surprise or two because they are a company that can afford it.

Also, there is a strong rumour that Sky Sports red button will be on VM in 2011 so some good news there

If that happens and ESPN win an extra package of games (or two), isn't there a danger that ESPN will pull out of being part of XL package and make VM viewers subscribe independently, like they do on the Sky platform?