SD : Premier Sports

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

Originally Posted by denphone

Well we shall see what happens in the coming weeks and months Alan.

Nothing will happen. PS want XL and VM want Pay TV the two dont match and as a results the talks have ceased

---------- Post added at 15:10 ---------- Previous post was at 15:07 ----------

is the lack of channel space an issue or is this just theorising? I suspect the the shopping channels pay VM not take a cut of customer income so why would they replace those channels??

[Media Boy]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

No chance of Eurosport 2/News and At the Races, the music channels and entertainment channels, but Liverpool might be a option?

There is enough space for more channels on Virgin TV!

My suggestion would be most shopping and travel channels bar QVC and other fairly high quality channels

I can see LFC TV moving to the TV Size M+ pack as LFC TV is free to view on Astra.

[Rillington]

Originally Posted by andy_m

No, but there was at least a reason for it to do so. There is no reason for Premier Sports to become part of the xl pack, so I think the prediction that it won't is sound.

I fully accept there was a reason for this and I'm sure that VM have reaosns for everything they do/don't do. The point I was making was that it is impossible to accurately predict what VM will do next, especially in terms of new TV channels. After all, for example, who would have thought that they'd launch CBS Action but not CBS Drama.

[andy_m]

Originally Posted by hagley_rob

A fellow member posted that there are too many sports channels already on XL. True, but Eurosport, apart from its excellent cycling coverage is very poor, along with Extreme, Liverpool FCTV, At the Races which I hardly watch because they don't interest me.

I only watch ESPN UK but hardly watch the other two especially ESPN America.

I agree completely what 'Chad' says earlier.

In my view get rid of the poorer sports channels then add Premier on XL otherwise I'm happy to pay £7.99 per month so I can get to watch some Blue Sq Prem football & some NASCAR etc. Surely £7.99 per month is a fair price?

There is lot of sort available on Virgin even if there aren't necessarily lots of dedicated sports channels, and most of their customers would rather it was in hd before it was added to, IMO.

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by Rillington

I fully accept there was a reason for this and I'm sure that VM have reaosns for everything they do/don't do. The point I was making was that it is impossible to accurately predict what VM will do next, especially in terms of new TV channels. After all, for example, who would have thought that they'd launch CBS Action but not CBS Drama.

VM do have a very weird way of launching channels, take C5 HD for example, I do also hope they launch CBS Drama sooner rather later!

[Fatballs]

To say ESPN are a Premium Channel on Virgin is not true as they are on XL along with Eurosport, Extreme and Motors. I believe Premier have better rights than 3 of the above channels and are far more relevant to the UK audience, particuary given many of the teams they film live in the Blue Sq and Championship Rugby League are in strong cable areas. They are quite right to play hard ball with Virgin. Why should they be Premium on cable along with Box Nation and some xxx channels. Virgin have a different platform model to Sky which has 10 million subscribers of which 6 million are sports fans and willing to pay for and make viable a la carte channels. Also believe it or not Sky take far less of a % than Virgin do. You would think that a few pence per sub from the XL price increase could go into funding this channel. They could even double the few pence and have a HD version of Premier Sports and actually attract customers from Sky rather than lose them over this. Anyway, from what I am hearing Premier are doing rather well and are in no hurry to pick up a carriage deal that will not suit them long term. There is no way they will ever go on Virgin Premium as they would be stuck there for good even if their rights get bigger. What you might find is if Virgin don't act now and get the channel on a package for small beer they are hit for massive money if Premier step up their rights. Delay tactics in the short term believing they can force Premier onto Premium could end up costing them 10 to 20 times what they would need to offer now if other rights come up.

[Digital Fanatic]

ESPN is a Premium channel, it's just that VM have done a deal with them to add it to XL pack

ESPN is premium on Sky also, it's not available in the channel packages.

[andy_m]

Originally Posted by Fatballs

Anyway, from what I am hearing Premier are doing rather well and are in no hurry to pick up a carriage deal that will not suit them long term.

Is that based on subscriptions as a premium channel on Sky? Do you know how many they have?

[Fatballs]

I know they are making money which is pretty good going for a channel only taking subscriptions since August 2010. Normally this can take years or in many cases channels get sold before they ever break even. I don't know sub numbers but running costs for this type of channel could be in the millions so they obviously have a decent base.

[MaverickJesus]

Premier Sports having better rights is a tad subjective - ESPN has Premiership Football, Premiership Rugby Union, NFL, NBA and god knows what else. Premier Sports has what, Rugby League and Conference football? Its hardly earth shattering stuff.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by MaverickJesus

Premier Sports having better rights is a tad subjective - ESPN has Premiership Football, Premiership Rugby Union, NFL, NBA and god knows what else. Premier Sports has what, Rugby League and Conference football? Its hardly earth shattering stuff.

I agree totally. Virgin customers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not exactly champing at the bit to get access to Rugby League or Conference Football. I'd say the fan base for these particular leagues are maingly, and firmly, in England.

Also the vast majority of live action on Premier Sports takes place at almost unwatchable hours. The Copa Libertadores is shown live on a Wednesday and Thursday night from between 12:30am to 4:00am. They show NHL almost everyday with the majority of games starting at midnight, 1am, 3am and 6am. NASCAR is all over the place too with some races starting at midnight. Their coverage of boxing, provided by Showtime starts at 4am in the morning.

For me the big attraction of sport, and a sports channel is watching the event live. I'd have to either be unemployed or working shifts to be able to watch the majority of live action on Premier Sports. To be honest, you'd also need either V+ or TiVo to catch all of the action.

I posted previously that I thought Premier Sports was better than Eurosport but not as good as ESPN. I'd now like to change that opinion. Premier Sports couldn't even touch Eurosport with a barge pole. Eurosport, very much like Premier Sports, don't exactly have top end sports coverage rights. Eurosport however over their 3 channels, which includes Eursport HD, tend to offer between 10 to 20 hours worth of live broadcasting everyday. They also try to cover EVERY sport or sporting genre.

[telepest]

Originally Posted by MaverickJesus

Premier Sports having better rights is a tad subjective - ESPN has Premiership Football, Premiership Rugby Union, NFL, NBA and god knows what else. Premier Sports has what, Rugby League and Conference football? Its hardly earth shattering stuff.

On SKY SPORTS Rugby league has the second highest viewer numbers after premier league football. official.

[MaverickJesus]

Originally Posted by telepest

On SKY SPORTS Rugby league has the second highest viewer numbers after premier league football. official.

Which (if I use your own criteria) surely just proves what I said, that ESPN having Premier League football has better content?

[denphone]

Originally Posted by MaverickJesus

Which (if I use your own criteria) surely just proves what I said, that ESPN having Premier League football has better content?

Exactly so it remains for Premier Sports to improve that content but the question there is have they got the required finance to do this.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by denphone

Exactly so it remains for Premier Sports to improve that content but the question there is have they got the required finance to do this.

I'd say no. When the Europa League rights went out to tenure about 6 months ago I fully expected Premier Sports to bid but they didn't. Over the past 18 months various away International TV rights for Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland Euro 2012 qualifiers were available on a game to game basis but none ended up on Premier Sports. Mick Hennessy, Tyson Furys' promoter, had about 2 shows on Premier Sports last year but ultimately agreed a long term deal with Channel 5.

Premier Sports have the rights they have for 2 reasons. They are cheap, and none of the other broadcasters made a serious bid. I was just reading today that the deal that World Ralley Championships were working on with Eurosport fell through. They are now desperately seeking a broadcaster. I wonder who will snap the rights up??? Seems to be the type of last minute deal Premier Sports will be all over.

I don't know anyone with SKY who subscribes to Premier Sports. None of my local pubs or clubs have the channel. The sports bars I go to in Falkirk and Edinburgh don't carry the channel either. They've got 2544 followers on Twitter and 8887 "likes" on Facebook. Also found this on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/nationalhotr...50509924954361

"Premier Sports feel that they would need A MINIMUM OF 500 NEW SUBSCRIBERS to sign up for an annual subscription prior to investing in National Hot Rods."

This is not the first time I've seen this type of message, or these type of figures when Premier Sports are considering new content.

If I had to take an educated guess, I'd say they've got between 3000 to 5000 subscribers on SKY and I'm being generous. I doubt the channel turns over more than £500,000 annually in subscribers, and advertising revenue will be poor too.

It's no surprise they want on the XL package with Virgin. I'm glad Virgin turned them done and offered them a subscription placement instead, just like on SKY. Why should we, Virgin Media customers, pay to subsidise such a poor limited channel? I bet they had the cheek to ask for a deal similar to ESPN's.