General : ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news

[Chad]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

I'd say the bigger issue for Sky with the loss of key sporting rights is it's ability to push through future price increases to fund it's EPL rights. I'd sadly expect non sports customers too see larger than normal increases to foot the bill. Just personal opinion of course.

The competition between SKY and BT is great for the consumer It's pushing almost £700 per year to watch SKY Sports, and BT Sports, in HD depending on who your provider is. I'm sure in the next 3 years this will reach an eye-watering £1000! It's seriously getting to the stage where it'll be cheaper for me to get a season ticket for Rangers, and go to the boxing once a month, than it is to watch at home.... and that includes travel costs and food. Crazy stuff

[denphone]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

I'd say the bigger issue for Sky with the loss of key sporting rights is it's ability to push through future price increases to fund it's EPL rights. I'd sadly expect non sports customers too see larger than normal increases to foot the bill. Just personal opinion of course.

And if non sports customers continue to see larger then normal price rises then even more will cut the cord one suspects.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by denphone

And if non sports customers continue to see larger then normal price rises then even more will cut the cord one suspects.

Got to agree. Every price increase makes the likes of Amazon Instant Video, Netflix and NOW TV look more appealing. Now all we need is for someone to launch cheap broadband without the need of an expensive phone line attached to the bill.

Virgins cheapest broadband offering is £28.50 per month for 50mb. As a former Virgin Media customer I've still got their cabling in my house. It would be great if Virgin could offer a 20mb service for about £13.99 per month for existing and former customers. I'm not sure what their profit margin would be but they wouldn't have to pay for an engineer to install. I'd even be prepared to pay for the modem and to have it delivered.

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by Chad

The competition between SKY and BT is great for the consumer It's pushing almost £700 per year to watch SKY Sports, and BT Sports, in HD depending on who your provider is. I'm sure in the next 3 years this will reach an eye-watering £1000! It's seriously getting to the stage where it'll be cheaper for me to get a season ticket for Rangers, and go to the boxing once a month, than it is to watch at home.... and that includes travel costs and food. Crazy stuff

Agree with all your points Chad , I only have both Sports packages because they've been vastly discounted by retentions , I would never pay full price.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by denphone

And if non sports customers continue to see larger then normal price rises then even more will cut the cord one suspects.

Trouble is the price rises are occurring on areas like line rental. (BT's and Plusnet's going up by a £1pm next month; remember there is zero inflation) so even if you cancel the TV service you will be paying for sport via the back door.

---------- Post added at 13:55 ---------- Previous post was at 13:47 ----------

Originally Posted by Chad

Got to agree. Every price increase makes the likes of Amazon Instant Video, Netflix and NOW TV look more appealing. Now all we need is for someone to launch cheap broadband without the need of an expensive phone line attached to the bill.

It's not a phone line, it's a line that delivers everything. Sadly it's not going to go away because the broadband companies' costs aren't going to decrease by £16pm.
However, if you live in central London now and elsewhere in the future, the well-financed company Relish is offering you unlimited web access for £20pm without line rental! It can do so as it uses 4G.
"Relish is operated by UK Broadband, part of the PCCW Group that includes HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider and largest mobile service operator"

[Gavin-D]

In order to get some live football on Sky Sports 5, Sky will be showing 80% of the football league games on it

[harry_hitch]

Originally Posted by Chad

The competition between SKY and BT is great for the consumer It's pushing almost £700 per year to watch SKY Sports, and BT Sports, in HD depending on who your provider is. I'm sure in the next 3 years this will reach an eye-watering £1000! It's seriously getting to the stage where it'll be cheaper for me to get a season ticket for Rangers, and go to the boxing once a month, than it is to watch at home.... and that includes travel costs and food. Crazy stuff

BT etc have been good for the consumer. There are two suppliers of PL football. One charges considerably less than the other.

BT are offering their sports service for free or extremely discounted for those who join their business. It is not their fault if people choose not to join BT and/or choose to pay for it at full whack. Sports fans on VM get it heavily discounted (no, it's fair on non sports fans) too, but is another option not to pay full price.

Sky are the company that, seemingly, over charge customers and keep the costs very high. Let's face it, how many of the games on Sky have actually been worth the cost over the past 23 years for a neutral, I imagine its a pretty low percentage.

OFCOM have given consumers a choice of which sports packages they can buy, it is not their fault if people choose to waste their money on two subscriptions, when one package could suffice.

I can't help but feel that Sky would be charging considerably more than the joint cost of SS and free/discounted BT sports, if there was no competition for them.

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Trouble is the price rises are occurring on areas like line rental. (BT's and Plusnet's going up by a £1pm next month; remember there is zero inflation) so even if you cancel the TV service you will be paying for sport via the back door.

-

Exactly; and it is really irritating to non sports fans. Why can't some authority take action against this blatantly obvious rip-off? Is the relevant authority blind to it or are they powerless to do anything?

[telegramsam]

Interesting that it is only Premier league matches were forced to be split between two broadcasters and not The Championship too,which annoys me as I have to sub to Sky Sports to see my team on the box! The BBC used to show a handful of live games once upon a time but I guess `Auntie` can`t afford to anymore?

[denphone]

Auntie certainly cannot afford it TGS sadly.

[Gavin-D]

Originally Posted by telegramsam

Interesting that it is only Premier league matches were forced to be split between two broadcasters and not The Championship too,which annoys me as I have to sub to Sky Sports to see my team on the box! The BBC used to show a handful of live games once upon a time but I guess `Auntie` can`t afford to anymore?

I've give up on Sky sports given the price, I shall just get a now TV day pass when the Boro are away and on Sky

[telegramsam]

Originally Posted by Gavin-D

I've give up on Sky sports given the price, I shall just get a now TV day pass when the Boro are away and on Sky

I haven`t got a device capable of accessing Now TV unfortunately so I`l probably end up subbing to sky sports again for another sson. Looking at the Virgin website i see you can only sub to the sky sports bundle now and not chose either sky sports 1 & 4 or sky sports 2 &3? Shame really yo can`t pick and choose really,isn`t it?

[Dave42]

thought bt would have had moved score to top

[pengedragon]

Originally Posted by telegramsam

I haven`t got a device capable of accessing Now TV unfortunately so I`l probably end up subbing to sky sports again for another sson. Looking at the Virgin website i see you can only sub to the sky sports bundle now and not chose either sky sports 1 & 4 or sky sports 2 &3? Shame really yo can`t pick and choose really,isn`t it?

You can normally pick up the now tv boxes with a couple of passes bundled in so essentially free

[Gavin-D]

Originally Posted by telegramsam

I haven`t got a device capable of accessing Now TV unfortunately so I`l probably end up subbing to sky sports again for another sson. Looking at the Virgin website i see you can only sub to the sky sports bundle now and not chose either sky sports 1 & 4 or sky sports 2 &3? Shame really yo can`t pick and choose really,isn`t it?

You could get the now TV box £19.99 in Argos with a 2 day Sky sports pass

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...er/2484655.htm