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

[Anypermitedroute]

Originally Posted by Chad

The Champions League rights are up for renewal in the next couple of months. Imagine if BT wrestled them away from SKY.

American football is my worry, BT must see that as a prime target

[telegramsam]

I can`t see BT getting champion league off sky but maybe off ITV?

[Gunslinger]

Originally Posted by Chad

Big figures but when you break them down further that only equates to 1,800,000 subscribers paying £15.00 per month.

That is 1.8 million NEW customers (or current customers whom might otherwise have switched) - over and above the 6.5 million they already have, who get it for free.

It is not clear where those are coming from - Sky and Virgin each have around 4-5 million BB customers. Either or both are likely to respond aggressively if faced with losing between 20% and 30% of their existing BB customer base.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by telegramsam

I can`t see BT getting champion league off sky but maybe off ITV?

From what l know some CL football has to be free to air Tele.

[telegramsam]

Originally Posted by denphone

From what l know some CL football has to be free to air Tele.

Ok didn`t know that. So presumedly ITV could only compete for the right to show them against another free-to-air channel such as BBC or Channel five?

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by Chad

The Champions League rights are up for renewal in the next couple of months. Imagine if BT wrestled them away from SKY.

To be fair I hope they both keep bidding and paying exuberant amounts for sport it may actually make the British public stand up and realise things are getting out of control with sports sub's.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

To be fair I hope they both keep bidding and paying exuberant amounts for sport it may actually make the British public stand up and realise things are getting out of control with sports sub's.

l agree with your sentiment totally but a considerable part of the public seem quite content on paying for their premium sport content MM.

[tvtimes]

I think BT will 100% be aggressively bidding for the champions league when it comes about to bid for it. It is the second most lucrative rights second only to the Premier League.

---------- Post added at 17:04 ---------- Previous post was at 17:03 ----------

Originally Posted by Anypermitedroute

American football is my worry, BT must see that as a prime target

It's very niche. I can't see BT spending big bucks on it, but I am sure they will want it to go with the rest of their US rights.

---------- Post added at 17:06 ---------- Previous post was at 17:04 ----------

Originally Posted by alwaysabear

That does seem strange. Then again some people will do anything to watch some footie.

---------- Post added at 14:00 ---------- Previous post was at 13:58 ----------



Its a lot of money to spend to keep existing customers.

What would they rather? Spend the money and keep their customers, or not spend the money and lose that revenue entirely? They have to do something to reduce the losses.

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by denphone

l agree with your sentiment totally but a considerable part of the public seem quite content on paying for their premium sport content MM.

I'm not telling people they shouldn't Den , my premiums have now gone the money wasn't the issue it was deciding whether the premium represented value for money and sadly in our house it no longer did likewise I won't be bothering with BT Sport.

Originally Posted by Anypermitedroute

American football is my worry, BT must see that as a prime target

I bet they'll get the (Monday?) night games from BBC Sport, as they'll have £0 left in the kitty after the FA Cup.

[tvtimes]

Originally Posted by Jameseh

I bet they'll get the (Monday?) night games from BBC Sport, as they'll have £0 left in the kitty after the FA Cup.

That's bull, BT are not Setanta and the FA cup rights do not cost that much as Sky aren't that bothered about them.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by telegramsam

I can`t see BT getting champion league off sky but maybe off ITV?

Maybe a joint bid by ITV and BT Sports?

[colin25]

Originally Posted by Chad

Maybe a joint bid by ITV and BT Sports?

I like that idea

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by Chad

To be fair BT do acknowledge that the figure includes those who get the service for free.

Must admit I'm impressed. It was just a few weeks ago they confirmed 500,000 had the channel.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/25/bt-spo...ports-3899255/

Unless I'm reading this wrongly that means BT Sports have added another 500,000 customers / subscribers in 3 weeks. As the season draws ever closer, I can see the same signing up again prior to Saturday!

This was interesting

"These are early days but we plan to make the most of this initial surge in demand as fans get excited about the football season ahead. Huge numbers of customers are signing up every day, which is testament to how fresh, vibrant and exciting the channels are. The market needed a new entrant to shake things up and that is precisely what we are doing.

http://www.btplc.com/news/articles/s...15f416117c8%7d

[tvtimes]

Originally Posted by Chad

Maybe a joint bid by ITV and BT Sports?

Did they do that with the BBC for the FA cup or did both just bid the most and the FA shared the rights?
I can ITV and BT Sport collectively bidding. It would make them a lot stronger that's for sure but Sky has a big stake in ITV.

---------- Post added at 17:25 ---------- Previous post was at 17:21 ----------

Originally Posted by muppetman11

This was interesting


http://www.btplc.com/news/articles/s...15f416117c8%7d

That quote suggests they have an awful lot of new customers. But are they broadband customers as well or just subscribing to the sport standalone? Either way I suppose those customers they could cross sell to as they now have their details. Sky won't be happy about that!