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

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Chad

At the moment it looks like BT are happy to push on as they are. Wholesale deals are not essential.

Bigger fools then l thought they were.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by denphone

Bigger fools then l thought they were.

BT Retail CEO Gavin Patterson said “Our strategy is not dependent on wholesale. It’s not completely within our control – it’s whether or not we can find the right valuation between us and others. We couldn’t rely on it in that respect, so we’ve built a strategy, we’ve built a business plan that doesn’t necessarily depend on us wholesaling this.”

I don't think BT really care about the success of the channels, they want to use the channels as a tool to grow their own phone, broadband and TV base.

This could have major ramifications across all of pay TV for sports fans. I'm amazed they have zero plans to launch on Freeview.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Chad

http://www.digitaltveurope.net/54521...gin-talk-talk/

"BT Retail CEO Gavin Patterson said the firm was still open to doing wholesale deals for its forthcoming sports channels with Virgin Media and Talk Talk, but stressed its strategy wasn’t dependent on it.

Speaking at a BT Sport launch event in London this morning, Patterson said that talks were ongoing with Virgin and would “hopefully continue” in the coming weeks, but claimed it was difficult for the cable TV rival to do a “value proposition” until BT was able to announce details of its sport offering.

“We’ve had similar discussions with Talk Talk as we have with Virgin. Philosophically we’re not against, wholesale, we’d be open to it, it’s really about value – what our perception of the value of it is, and what their perception of the value is, and there’s a gap at the moment,” said Patterson.

Asked whether he could imagine a point where BT would simply walk away from wholesale discussions he added: “Our strategy is not dependent on wholesale. It’s not completely within our control – it’s whether or not we can find the right valuation between us and others. We couldn’t rely on it in that respect, so we’ve built a strategy, we’ve built a business plan that doesn’t necessarily depend on us wholesaling this.”


http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2013/...ort-goes-free/

"However, customers of Virgin Media and rival telco TalkTalk may not be able to receive it via their television services."

http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news...ootball-115800

"There are currently no plans to bring the channels to Virgin Media’s cable service."

http://recombu.com/digital/news/bt-s...st_M11546.html

"There's no word on whether Virgin Media subscribers will be able to access the BT Sport channels but it's looking unlikely."

Mmmmm....... Doesn't look great for the likes of Talk Talk, Virgin or Smallworld. Basically any TV provider where BT can't sell directly to the customer.

There's nothing amazing here. Virgin have yet to do a deal. That doesn't mean they are not going to! Surely we all know that VM will take this to the wire to get a good deal for its customers.

I certainly would not be worried by the content of these articles.

Originally Posted by Chad

BT Retail CEO Gavin Patterson said “Our strategy is not dependent on wholesale. It’s not completely within our control – it’s whether or not we can find the right valuation between us and others. We couldn’t rely on it in that respect, so we’ve built a strategy, we’ve built a business plan that doesn’t necessarily depend on us wholesaling this.”

I don't think BT really care about the success of the channels, they want to use the channels as a tool to grow their own phone, broadband and TV base.

This could have major ramifications across all of pay TV for sports fans. I'm amazed they have zero plans to launch on Freeview.

Be interesting to see what Gavin says in a few months. They need a hell of a lot of customers to move from Sky and VM to cover the cost of setting up their sports offering. The investment community have given todays announcement a massive thumbs down which has led to a reduction of £6.60 off their share price.

The view is that this is aimed at getting Sky BB customers onto infinity and that the impact on VM will be minimal.

[andy_m]

Originally Posted by Top banana

Be interesting to see what Gavin says in a few months. They need a hell of a lot of customers to move from Sky and VM to cover the cost of setting up their sports offering. The investment community have given todays announcement a massive thumbs down which has led to a reduction of £6.60 off their share price.

The view is that this is aimed at getting Sky BB customers onto infinity and that the impact on VM will be minimal.

I actually don't think it's going to be possible to recoup their outlay, and by their own admission they're well on plan B. Todays announcement makes it clear that they're looking to make the best of a bad situation - they can't use their new product to sell their TV service because the rest of it isn't good enough to compete, so they're going to concentrate on building up the brand and, if they can pick up a few broadband customers along the way then that's a bonus, with the added benefit of being able to showcase their offering to the UK's largest broadband customer base. They're in it for the long haul, and intend to bid again in the next rights auction, but I wouldn't now be surprised if BT Sport doesn't turn up on Virgin.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Top banana

The view is that this is aimed at getting Sky BB customers onto infinity and that the impact on VM will be minimal.

http://www.techradar.com/news/intern...sports-1150266

"The announcement comes as BT continues to aggressively roll out its fibre broadband service around the UK. BT confirmed that it is on track for fibre to cover two thirds of homes and businesses in the country by next spring. As for going up against Sky, a BT spokesperson told TechRadar: "A lot of our broadband customers have defected to Sky because Sky came in with a very aggressive offer... we really want to get those customers back on our broadband"

"There's a degree of BT and Sky rivalry, undoubtedly," he added. "But we're wanting to pinch broadband customers back from Virgin and Talk Talk as much as from Sky."

"This is really a battle for broadband but the TV is the bait."

BT's plan to get SKY broadband customers to chose their broadband instead, by offering BT Sports free, is a great move. However as BT can't sell their channel directly to Virgin and Talk Talk customers, they are unable to lure Virgin and Talk Talk customers over on a similar deal. Their best chance of getting broadband customers from Talk Talk and Virgin is by not making BT Sports available on their respective platforms.

If this is truly all about broadband customers, rather than money from wholesaling the TV channel, I really can't see anything Virgin and Talk Talk can offer to BT. BT seem to have a very clear aim and goal.

[BexTech]

Originally Posted by Chad

I'm amazed they have zero plans to launch on Freeview.

What would be the incentive then, if everyone can get it on Freeview and being Freeview means no cost to view. No need to have phone or broadband from BT, just Freeview TV and aerial.

Unless you meant as a subscription channel on DTT?

[Chad]

Originally Posted by BexTech

What would be the incentive then, if everyone can get it on Freeview and being Freeview means no cost to view. No need to have phone or broadband from BT, just Freeview TV and aerial.

Unless you meant as a subscription channel on DTT?

Yeah I didn't mean for free. I was meaning on a Top Up TV style basis.

They are launching BT 1&2 on Freeview for customers not yet in Infinity areas. They seem to be removing Sky Sports (as they pay for it) and ESPN off it though.

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Confirmed: No deal done yet for BT Sports on Virgin Media.

BT has confirmed at Virgin Media has no deal yet to carry BT Sport 1*, BT Sport 2* and ESPN* from August 1st.

*Also in HD.

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/d...l_tw_sportfaqs

When BT Sport do launch on Virgin Media it will cost £12 to £15 per month.

-£12 per month for the SD Channels only.
-£15 per month with the HD Channels added.

As per MB's link in said post.

Originally Posted by andy_m

I actually don't think it's going to be possible to recoup their outlay, and by their own admission they're well on plan B. Todays announcement makes it clear that they're looking to make the best of a bad situation - they can't use their new product to sell their TV service because the rest of it isn't good enough to compete, so they're going to concentrate on building up the brand and, if they can pick up a few broadband customers along the way then that's a bonus, with the added benefit of being able to showcase their offering to the UK's largest broadband customer base. They're in it for the long haul, and intend to bid again in the next rights auction, but I wouldn't now be surprised if BT Sport doesn't turn up on Virgin.

I agree it won't be on VM but will that mean customers will leave VM in droves, probably not

[andy_m]

No, probably not.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Top banana

I agree it won't be on VM but will that mean customers will leave VM in droves, probably not

It might actually be a good thing for non-sports fans with XL and VIP. If ESPN drops out, and BT Sports doesn't come to Virgin at all, suddenly Virgin have extra money to play with. What this could mean is:

1. More HD channels
2. More on demand content
3. A dedicated 3D channel
4. Premier Sports
5. SKY Atlantic
6. Etc......

[spankysmagicpian]

Irrespective of whether it's available on Virgin or not - I wouldn't be paying the extra £15 a month anyway so I don't really feel I am losing out.

[coulsontom]

Everyone's saying BT will make losses on the Sport side of things.

However, they probably expect to for the first few years, and as others have said, prob hope to take more rights and end up in a 50/50 style share situation with Sky (which would result in BT surely then charging, and presumably sky having to lower their prices)

But if BT get a good increase in viewers, which is likely, as they have 5m Broadband subscribers now, plus the inevitable people they entice, plus those who subscribe who used to have ESPN.

It is logical to predict they will have more viewers than Sky Sports. They could therefore market the advertising slots very competitively and charge more than if they had subscribers paying.

Say they had 1.5m paying £15 that's £22.5m
BT is paying £246m per season. Subscriptions wouldn't even scrap the surface anyway.

BT made a profit of £675m last year.

They're not eating into that too much are they?

[alwaysabear]

Originally Posted by Chad

It might actually be a good thing for non-sports fans with XL and VIP. If ESPN drops out, and BT Sports doesn't come to Virgin at all, suddenly Virgin have extra money to play with. What this could mean is:

1. More HD channels
2. More on demand content
3. A dedicated 3D channel
4. Premier Sports
5. SKY Atlantic
6. Etc......

Personally I would be quite happy with your list , at least I would get to watch the NHL again