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Originally Posted by Richc1977
I don't agree, I think BT are in it for the long run and have the muscle to take on rivals. Their investment in ULTRA HD is a pretty good indicator of intent.
Key for them is getting a look in for some rights, in an interview a few months back Delia Bushell (Managing Director of BT TV and Sport) suggested that some rights holders had rejected offers from BT as they feared another Sentana, IT digital situation. BeIN would face the same issues in the UK while BT's reputation will no doubt only get better.
However there are a couple of factors that I think could impact the market and potential risk areas.
1. Sports providers deciding to supply content direct rather than via channels as more people move to getting content via netflx, amazon etc.. In the US you can get NFL and MLB etc... via game passes. I'd personally love to see this for cricket and tennis.
2. Sport rights being sold and made available on a pan-European basis, as per Eurosport Olympics.
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Some interesting points. I think the possibility of dedicated sports channels run by the sports bodies is a real one. Obviously, it depends on whether they will make more money by by selling directly. The growth of non-traditional platforms like Smart TVs and Roku make this easier now than ever.
I think the sale of European rights by the Olympics is pretty much a one-off. Apart from EuroSport, I can't think of any broadcasters in Europe that can bid for events on a pan-European scale. And with a £50m turnover in the UK, it's not viable for EuroSport to bid for big events in this country unless it becomes a premium channel. And a third premium sports channel would really struggle against Sky and BT.
If the European sports market did consolidate across countries, BT has an alliance with DeutscheTelekom (soon to become the largest single BT shareholder) so doubtless there would be joint bids for rights with other DeutscheTelekom affiliates.