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

[telegramsam]

I suspect Virgin and BT are still in talks so no anouncement can be made yet,and quite rightly BT can say in their adverts that BT Sports is only available on BT vision and sky digital boxes. I can understand Virgin customers feeling frustrated though. It will be interesting to see just how many customers virgin loose if BT sports isn`t available on virgin. One further point,I read somewhere on this forum that BT sports is now listed on the Freeview EPG,so maybe you virgin customers could get BT sports that way as I used to do with Setanta when it first launched.

[Mad Max]

It will be interesting to see just how many customers virgin loose if BT sports isn`t available on virgin.

They might not lose any customers, you are assuming that this would be the case , maybe not!

[devilincarnate]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

They might not lose any customers, you are assuming that this would be the case , maybe not!

True it could also be sue to what if anything comes in its place?

[telegramsam]

Sure they might not loose any customers but going by some of the comments on here I suspect some will jump ship.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

The frustration is that VM NEVER tell customers what is happening, you only find out when it appears.

Some PR from a so called major company, l always remember when l complained to Sky re that awful set of numbers on the screen during a big game, the VM CS agent had a right old go at me saying they have no choice in putting it there to stop 'illegal streams going into some one house that is not paying VM bill.

What they dont realise is that people just have to break into the 'green box' and just reconnect the thing.

I did ONE day with Telewest, collecting boxes and l found out so much about cable tv, from eginmeers. And its the same system today.

[Sirius]

Just had the email from ESPN asking if its OK to pass my email address across to BT so they can contact me, i said NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I am not giving them my email because i don't want the BT sports channel. They don't have the one sport i watch so why should they have my email address.

The email address is unique to ESPN and is from my personal domain. I give individual addresses to individual sites so i will soon know if they still have gone ahead and passed it on. I have never had any mail on that email address from BT so if they do contact me i will know who they got it from.

[harry_hitch]

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

The frustration is that VM NEVER tell customers what is happening, you only find out when it appears.

Some PR from a so called major company, l always remember when l complained to Sky re that awful set of numbers on the screen during a big game, the VM CS agent had a right old go at me saying they have no choice in putting it there to stop 'illegal streams going into some one house that is not paying VM bill.

What they dont realise is that people just have to break into the 'green box' and just reconnect the thing.

I did ONE day with Telewest, collecting boxes and l found out so much about cable tv, from eginmeers. And its the same system today.

Oh come on Arthur, please keep up. VM have told us what is going on, and they are still in talks with BT - what else can they say? Perhaps you can tell us what you want VM to say? And yes, Sky put the numbers on the football too. I guess it will be acceptable on Sky though

[cityfan247]

I like my sports and was happy to get ESPN/ESPN America at no extra charge. I also subscribed to Sky Sports.

When it was announced BT Sports was taking over from ESPN i thought i hope VM get this. But times are getting tough and a couple of months ago i stopped my Sky Sports package to save a few ££.

I know its only the summer but you know what my world hasn't caved in. Life carries on.

All the uncertainty of will VM get BT sports or not has started to bore me now. Sky Sports prices are going up soon - if VM get Bt Sports it will cost more than before. i work out about £600 a year to get the Sports in HD (assuming BT sport does come to VM). Thats too much for me these days (i havent had a pay rise in 3 years) so unless VM do a 'deal' i wont be getting BT Sports even if it does arrive let alone Sky Sports. These days its a matter of priorities.

I wonder how many will subscribe to BT and Sky Sports. If you can afford -good on yer.

i have MLB.TV which i think represents good value for money for my baseball fix and for footy i shall make do with Match of the Day highlights (BBC) for the 'greed is king' 'not in the real world' premier league , FA Cup games (ITV), Champions League games(ITV), Europa League games (ITV), internationals and next years World Cup (BBC/ITV), Scottish football on BBC Scotland and Alba,goals on Sky Sports News, NFL (BBC/C4) as well as stuff on Eurosport- most in HD and all free.

[Qtx]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

They might not lose any customers, you are assuming that this would be the case , maybe not!

Of course they would lose some customers, that goes without saying. How many would jump ship is less discernible.

If Virgin were not going to get the BT sports channel it would be in their own interest to not let customers know until the last possible moment anyway. If they got the channel they will be shouting about it straight away, as that is also in their interest.

While it sucks Arthur, you have to remember that none of these companies actually really care about their customers, they care about money so will do what benefits them rather than customers.

[tvtimes]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

They might not lose any customers, you are assuming that this would be the case , maybe not!

But they are losing customers, there's a few on this thread who have already stated their intention to leave.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by cityfan247

I like my sports and was happy to get ESPN/ESPN America at no extra charge. I also subscribed to Sky Sports.

When it was announced BT Sports was taking over from ESPN i thought i hope VM get this. But times are getting tough and a couple of months ago i stopped my Sky Sports package to save a few ££.

I know its only the summer but you know what my world hasn't caved in. Life carries on.

All the uncertainty of will VM get BT sports or not has started to bore me now. Sky Sports prices are going up soon - if VM get Bt Sports it will cost more than before. i work out about £600 a year to get the Sports in HD (assuming BT sport does come to VM). Thats too much for me these days (i havent had a pay rise in 3 years) so unless VM do a 'deal' i wont be getting BT Sports even if it does arrive let alone Sky Sports. These days its a matter of priorities.

I wonder how many will subscribe to BT and Sky Sports. If you can afford -good on yer.

i have MLB.TV which i think represents good value for money for my baseball fix and for footy i shall make do with Match of the Day highlights (BBC) for the 'greed is king' 'not in the real world' premier league , FA Cup games (ITV), Champions League games(ITV), Europa League games (ITV), internationals and next years World Cup (BBC/ITV), Scottish football on BBC Scotland and Alba,goals on Sky Sports News, NFL (BBC/C4) as well as stuff on Eurosport- most in HD and all free.

Some really good points. When I had Virgin I cancelled SKY Sports and didn't miss it all all. A combination of free to air football, ESPN in the XL package and Boxnation for £10.00 per month gave me all I needed.

Whilst people want to watch the premiership, there is plenty of good free to air football featuring English and Scottish teams:

ITV - Champions League - 18 games
ITV - Europa League - 29 games
ITV - FA Cup - 16 games
ITV - FA Community Shield
ITV - 2014 (England) World Cup Qualifiers - 4 games + friendly against Scotland
ITV - FA Youth Cup - 2 games
BBC Alba - SPL - 3 games
BBC Alba - Scottish Challenge Cup - 5 games
BBC Scotland - Scottish Cup - 5 games
BBC Scotland - League Cup - 3 games
BBC Scotland - 2014 (Scotland) World Cup Qualifiers - 1 game


88 live games on free to air TV, roughly 2 per week during the football season.

[paul nolan]

Originally Posted by tvtimes

But they are losing customers, there's a few on this thread who have already stated their intention to leave.

Stating an intention to leave and actually leaving are two very different things.

Anyway, BT launches August the 1st. I wouldn't be surprised if BT Sport just appeared in place of ESPN.

first BT want to get as many people over to their broadband before launch. They won't get that, if VM say, 'yeah you can watch it on our platform

Next BT will want to get as high a viewership as possible to get Advertising Money incoming. Think of the financial drop-off at the Change over if the channel lost all VM viewers.

[harry_hitch]

Originally Posted by tvtimes

But they are losing customers, there's a few on this thread who have already stated their intention to leave.

VM will lose customers, just as they have over every period prior to this one. They will also lose customers in the future. VM will be aware of this rather sticky situation and will be and/or currently are calculating possible losses. The losses will be minimal though. There simply are not enough football/rugby fans who may possibly leave that it will effect VM in the long term.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Sirius

Just had the email from ESPN asking if its OK to pass my email address across to BT so they can contact me, i said NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I am not giving them my email because i don't want the BT sports channel. They don't have the one sport i watch so why should they have my email address.

The email address is unique to ESPN and is from my personal domain. I give individual addresses to individual sites so i will soon know if they still have gone ahead and passed it on. I have never had any mail on that email address from BT so if they do contact me i will know who they got it from.

Yes l had that email as well.

[johnasimmons]

Originally Posted by Sirius

Just had the email from ESPN asking if its OK to pass my email address across to BT so they can contact me, i said NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I am not giving them my email because i don't want the BT sports channel. They don't have the one sport i watch so why should they have my email address.

The email address is unique to ESPN and is from my personal domain. I give individual addresses to individual sites so i will soon know if they still have gone ahead and passed it on. I have never had any mail on that email address from BT so if they do contact me i will know who they got it from.

me also