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

[alwaysabear]

Originally Posted by Gavin-D

BT Sport signs up half a million in Sky battle

BT says it has signed up more than 500,000 subscribers to its television sports channels ahead of the new football season. BT Sport is being launched in August as part of the company's plans to compete with Sky and boost revenues.

It has secured the rights to 38 Premier League matches in the coming season, compared with Sky's 116. The update came as BT reported pre-tax profits of £449m for the three months to June, above analysts' expectations.

BT's chief executive Ian Livingston said the subscriber numbers were promising. "It is early days but we are very pleased with the strong start in BT Sport. More than half a million households have now ordered BT Sport and that's before the channels have even launched," he said.

Sky Sports does not reveal how many subscribers it has, but it is widely believed to be in the millions. BT's sports offering is partly designed to prevent customers from defecting to Sky and taking their broadband and telephone accounts with them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23446248

That's not great when you consider the amount of money they have thrown at the project. If memory serves me right that is less than ESPN had at launch.IMO Looks like there is a lot of consumer resistance to paying for BT sport.

[Doug P]

Half a million seems rather poor.....

[Gavin-D]

Originally Posted by Doug P

Half a million seems rather poor.....

Indeed and most are getting it free as well so BT aren't going to make much money from this when you consider how much they've spent on the rights for the PL and of course advertising

Sky tells Virgin Media customers: “We’ll pay your BT Sport subscription when you move”

Sky is targeting rival Virgin Media’s customers with an offer to pay their subscription to BT Sport if they move their TV and broadband services. While BT’s forthcoming sport channels are available to Sky customers, both free to those who buy their broadband from BT and via a £12pm subscription for those who don’t, the cable company has yet to confirm a carriage deal with BT.

The absence of a deal has lead to complaints from some Virgin Media customers who are due to lose their existing free access to ESPN, bought earlier this year by BT, at the end of the month. A special offer currently available via Sky.com and available only to customers switching from Virgin Media includes “Free credits” for BT Sport 1&2 and ESPN for 12 months.

The site says: “When you move to Sky TV with The Sports Bundle, we’ll give you a £12 credit each month for 12 months and £15 for one-off cover activation. Then simply use this to sign up directly with BT, and you’ll get BT Sport 1&2 and ESPN for free.’ Customers will still need to sign up to BT Sports via BT.com as the ISP has yet to agree to Sky selling the channels on its behalf and is selling them direct to its rival’s customers.

The offer is available to anyone transferring TV, phone and broadband packages

http://www.seenit.co.uk/sky-tells-vi...-move/0728957/

[yorkshireborn]

[/U][/U]

Originally Posted by Gavin-D

The absence of a deal has lead to complaints from some Virgin Media customers who are due to lose their existing free access to ESPN, bought earlier this year by BT, at the end of the month. A special offer currently available via Sky.com and available only to customers switching from Virgin Media includes “Free credits” for BT Sport 1&2 and ESPN for 12 months.



http://www.seenit.co.uk/sky-tells-vi...-move/0728957/

this is not free to XL customers they already pay for it through XL tv being a higher price than L tv.

[Gavin-D]

Originally Posted by yorkshireborn

[/U][/U]

this is not free to XL customers they already pay for it through XL tv being a higher price than L tv.

XL TV is bound to cost more you get a lot more channels including 28 extra HD channels

[Doug P]

Originally Posted by Gavin-D

XL TV is bound to cost more you get a lot more channels including 28 extra HD channels

L Tv is not worth it. Really not worth it.

[bubblegun]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...ague-customers

Patterson warned that Virgin Media's cable customers may "never" have access to BT's sports content. Virgin carries the Sky sports channels and was able to offer its customers all the Premier League games by carrying ESPN, which shared rights to the matches with Sky before BT won them. Asked whether Virgin would eventually carry the BT Sport channels, Patterson said: "We are in discussions but it depends how those discussions go. It might never. They may need to consider their choices. It's another reason why customers might chose to switch over from Virgin to BT."

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by bubblegun

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...ague-customers

Patterson warned that Virgin Media's cable customers may "never" have access to BT's sports content. Virgin carries the Sky sports channels and was able to offer its customers all the Premier League games by carrying ESPN, which shared rights to the matches with Sky before BT won them. Asked whether Virgin would eventually carry the BT Sport channels, Patterson said: "We are in discussions but it depends how those discussions go. It might never. They may need to consider their choices. It's another reason why customers might chose to switch over from Virgin to BT."

So glad i don't watch football. BT will not be getting me on there books

[Chad]

BT Sports goes live at 6pm next Thursday.

BT Sport 1 & 2 kick off with a live broadcast from the BT Hub welcoming new subscribers. This is followed by:

BT Sports 1 - 7:00pm - Audi Cup Final
BT Sports 2 - 7:00pm - JP Morgans Rugby 7's

[colin25]

Originally Posted by Chad

BT Sports goes live at 6pm next Thursday.

BT Sport 1 & 2 kick off with a live broadcast from the BT Hub welcoming new subscribers. This is followed by:

BT Sports 1 - 7:00pm - Audi Cup Final
BT Sports 2 - 7:00pm - JP Morgans Rugby 7's

I think it would probably be truer to say, BT launches on 1 Aug.

I noticed ESPN has football on earlier than BT Sport. I won't get BT until it launches, so I am hoping to watch ESPN game earlier.

But will soon see.

[Doug P]

Gosh the Audi Cup Final! Worth every penny!!

[Gavin-D]

BSkyB, the owner of Sky News, has announced a 9% rise in full-year operating profit to £1.33bn. The company saw product growth of 3.3 million, taking the total of paid-for products to 31.6 million.

It also saw growth of connected Sky+HD boxes of 170% year-on-year, to 2.7 million units.

There was a fivefold increase in On Demand downloads and a 200% growth in Sky Store video rentals.

BSkyB also has 10.42 million pay TV subscribers and 4.9 million broadband customers.

It added that the number of entertainment shows with an audience of more than 1 million has risen 200% during the last two years.

http://news.sky.com/story/1120639/bs...cent-to-1-33bn

New products announced included a WiFi enabled Sky HD box launching in September and the much rumored Now TV set top box, available for £9.99 from today.

http://corporate.sky.com/media/press...new_now_tv_box

20 new channels will be added to On Demand catch up and ten new channels will be added to Sky Go

[nstokes]

6 days to go

---------- Post added at 10:33 ---------- Previous post was at 09:48 ----------

Who posted about being able to keep ESPN recordings till November on Tivo, well i just found this on Sky and you VM customers have 1 over us on this on. We cant keep recordings beyons 31st July

https://remove.sky.com/espn

Thank you for subscribing to ESPN with Sky. From 31 July 2013 your ESPN subscription will be coming to an end and you will no longer be able to subscribe to ESPN directly through Sky from this date. To make the process as smooth as possible, we’ll remove it from your account automatically on 31 July and we’ll make sure you won’t be charged for it after this date.
You need to give us 31 days’ notice to cancel your ESPN subscription. Even if you decide to cancel your subscription today, having paid your most recent bill, the ESPN channel and your ESPN recordings will still be available until the subscription closure.
We therefore advise you to do nothing and let us automatically remove the ESPN subscription from your bill on 31 July – it won’t cost you any more than if you remove ESPN today.
What will happen to my ESPN recordings after 31 July?

As a result of ESPN now being sold by BT, any previous ESPN recordings will no longer be accessible on your Sky+ box after 1 August.
This will still be the case if you choose to subscribe to ESPN through BT at a later date.

[greeninferno]

Originally Posted by Gavin-D

BSkyB, the owner of Sky News, has announced a 9% rise in full-year operating profit to £1.33bn. The company saw product growth of 3.3 million, taking the total of paid-for products to 31.6 million.

It also saw growth of connected Sky+HD boxes of 170% year-on-year, to 2.7 million units.

There was a fivefold increase in On Demand downloads and a 200% growth in Sky Store video rentals.

BSkyB also has 10.42 million pay TV subscribers and 4.9 million broadband customers.

It added that the number of entertainment shows with an audience of more than 1 million has risen 200% during the last two years.

http://news.sky.com/story/1120639/bs...cent-to-1-33bn

New products announced included a WiFi enabled Sky HD box launching in September and the much rumored Now TV set top box, available for £9.99 from today.

http://corporate.sky.com/media/press...new_now_tv_box

20 new channels will be added to On Demand catch up and ten new channels will be added to Sky Go

Is this right ?

10 million+ TV customers and only 2.7 M HD boxes?

How long have these been available ? 7/8 years?

[Doug P]

Twenty per cent roughly.

Not bad for something that is pay for picture quality.