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

[telegramsam]

Phoned virgin customer services yesterday and asked about the discount on sky sports i`d heard about and could I have it. Yes was the reply so I now have Sky sports for 9 months at £22 a month. As the very anoying Keith Lemon says on a tv advert "If you don`t ask you don`t get"!

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by denphone

And you believe that OB?.

I guess it's all part of the mix, Den!

[Richc1977]

Eurosport takes over full coverage of US Open Tennis.

It will be on both Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2 and up to 12 courts on Eurosport player.

Decent line up of commentators too.

Great news next best thing to FTA coverage.

http://www.eurosport.co.uk/tennis/us...12/story.shtml

[johnathome]

Originally Posted by Richc1977

Eurosport takes over full coverage of US Open Tennis.

It will be on both Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2 and up to 12 courts on Eurosport player.

Decent line up of commentators too.

Great news next best thing to FTA coverage.

Those EPL rights they paid through the nose for is making them give up a few other sports deals, unless Eurosport decided not to offer them up for grabs this time?

[Richc1977]

Originally Posted by johnathome

Those EPL rights they paid through the nose for is making them give up a few other sports deals, unless Eurosport decided not to offer them up for grabs this time?

I think it's a combo of both.

It was announced at a board meeting earlier in the year that Sky would drop certain rights as they focus on core markets. Many guessed that it would mean dropping of US Open tennis amongst other things. As they carry Eurosport they know that subscribers will still get access to it. Had Eurosport not held rights and it been an open tender with BT bidding then it might have been a different story.

Plus with the new ownership Eurosport are uping their game and investing in rights and their coverage. I think they are pretty keen to be the home of the Grand Slam tennis. Will be interesting to see if they bid for the ATP rights when they are up, looks like they didn't go for the WTA ones.

[Chad]

Plenty of live tennis coming up on SKY Sports Mix:

http://www.skysports.com/watch/tennis-on-sky

ATP Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, ATP Shanghai Rolex Masters and ATP Erste Bank Open.

[RichardCoulter]

Opening schedule here:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/11...ky-sports.html

[Richc1977]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Opening schedule here:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/11...ky-sports.html

Plus

Sat 3 Sep:
12pm – Live F1 Italian GP Qualifying
12am – Live MLS – Vancouver v New York

Sun 4 Sep:
2.30pm – Live GAA – Hurling Final
8pm – Live LPGA Tour Golf – Manulife Final Round

Mon 5 Sep:
7.30pm – Live World Cup Qualifier – Serbia v Republic of Ireland

Wed 7 Sep:
7.30pm – Live Elite League Speedway

Thur 8 Sep:
7.30pm – Live Super League
1am – Live NFL – Carolina @ Denver

Fri 9 Sep:
7pm – Live EFL – Reading v Ipswich

[nialli]

If you subscribe to Sky Sports on Virgin Media and have the App installed on your phone or tablet, you can watch all of Saturday’s Premiership goals before they’re broadcast in the evening. It’s advertised as exclusive for Sky TV customers before 10pm but my VM login worked fine today.
Just so’s you knows.

[Dave42]

mine didn't work just tried

[nialli]

Originally Posted by Dave42

mine didn't work just tried

Mine worked at around 6pm and is still working now - have tried all games and there's about 2 - 3 mins per game. PQ good, too

[OLD BOY]

Oh, dear, it seems that Virgin Media is upset with BT for giving free access to BT Sport to its EE customers. I think BT is going to have to accept that it has breached its contract with VM and maybe this will result in an agreement that benefits Virgin customers who get the XL pack. Let's hope so.

It's about time football fans got some financial relief!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...-ee-gives-cha/

A bitter row has erupted between BT and Virgin Media over the more than £120m a year the cable operator pays its broadband rival for the BT Sport channels now being offered free to millions of EE mobile subscribers.

BT is seeking to capitalise on its £12.5bn takeover of Britain’s biggest mobile operator by boosting distribution of its football rights. EE’s monthly subscribers have been given six months of free access to BT Sport via a mobile app, in a move that it hopes will increase loyalty and television revenue once charges are introduced next year.

The promotion has enraged Virgin Media, however, which played a key role in the launch of BT’s football push three years ago and has a wholesale agreement to provide BT Sport to millions of cable households as part of their television package. Virgin Media agreed to pay upfront to carry BT Sport, which helped the channels justify their heavy spending on sports rights to investors.

For the cable operator, the arrangement was seen as an advantage over Sky in the pay-TV market. BT has not done a wholesale deal with its biggest rival, leaving satellite households to face a separate subscription at higher cost if they want both Sky Sports and BT Sport.

Virgin Media, owned by New York-listed Liberty Global, is understood to have claimed that EE’s offer represents a breach of its contract, which bars BT from giving wholesale access to BT Sport at a lower price than it pays.

Virgin Media argues the arrangement with EE effectively represents a wholesale deal at zero cost and has demanded that the mobile operator suspend the promotion.

BT has so far refused, and EE is advertising the deal heavily with a campaign fronted by the actor Kevin Bacon and BT Sport pundits such as Rio Ferdinand. It sees the chance to bundle BT Sport with smartphone contracts as an important part of the rationale for its return to the mobile market.

A source described Virgin Media as “absolutely furious” over the dispute, which illustrates wider concern in the telecoms and media sector over BT’s increased power following the takeover of EE. Virgin Media directly competes with EE via its Virgin Mobile service, which has three million customers. The cable operator does not own a mobile network infrastructure, instead renting capacity from EE.

Since the BT takeover, it has become keen to shift its business and is understood to have held talks with Three.

BT said it did not comment on customer contracts, and Virgin Media declined to comment.

[Superblade7]

Be interesting to see how that plays out OB as I'm not sure EE would need a wholesale agreement as they are now owned by BT. I'm not a legal expert so one to keep an eye on.

Although I think VM would be better off focussing their time and money on improving their own offering to customers to try and keep them now they've just announced another price increase.

[muppetman11]

The EE deal is only available on mobile/tablet devices that contain an EE sim the cast feature is also disabled so I'd imagine BT has covered all bases before launching it.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

The EE deal is only available on mobile/tablet devices that contain an EE sim the cast feature is also disabled so I'd imagine BT has covered all bases before launching it.

I was wondering why Eurosport was available on EE TV but not BT Sport. That explains why.