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

[telegramsam]

Originally Posted by cityfan247

opening up the bidding process for sports , in particular football, and reducing Sky Sports' monopoly was supposed to benefit the viewers and fans but it has had exactly the opposite effect.

the more players in the market the more subscriptions there are to pay. Now we have Sky Sports , BT Sports and Premier Sports and if Eurosport paid £££ for some rights who's to say that wouldnt be subscription based as well. we are nearing the point when no-one will be able to afford to watch all the EPL and Champions League. The only winners are the tournament organisers, the clubs and in turn the players who's ridiculous wages continue to go up and up.

Totally agree with all above

[pengedragon]

nice big ad for the season ticket in my paper this morning

mrs pengedragon is proving a tough nut to crack but i will get this soon

[denphone]

A bit of bribery never goes amiss PD.

[Superblade7]

Originally Posted by pengedragon

nice big ad for the season ticket in my paper this morning

mrs pengedragon is proving a tough nut to crack but i will get this soon

It's a great saving pengedragon, I got mine last week. As den says, if you treat yourself to that, I'm sure your good lady could have a treat too!

[colin25]

Originally Posted by Superblade7

It's a great saving pengedragon, I got mine last week. As den says, if you treat yourself to that, I'm sure your good lady could have a treat too!

I used the virgin offer to discuss a compromise with sky, I will get a 20% discount on my whole sky package. There are positives everywhere

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Chad

It will be very interesting to see if a 3rd bidder enters the race for rights.

I think SKY are planning to bid big and are already preparing their war-chest. SKY will still have the money they planned to spend on Champions League rights plus I'm sure the recent carriage deals with Virgin Media and Talk Talk are also about raising revenue. Who knows maybe SKY will also use part of the funds raised from selling their stake in ITV.

The truth of the matter is who knows what will happen. I've seen a lot of speculation over the past 48 hours that moving forward SKY plan to bid for sports rights on a continental basis.

As we saw with the last Premiership rights bidding, the only companies that can justify the highest bids are those from platform owners. ESPN was blown out of the water by BT as it is not a platform operator so I can't see Discovery/EuroSport winning any Premiership rights either.
Sky can bid on a continent basis but it's up to the rights owners how they sell them. Having the same rights in three countries does open up some savings in covering the events and most TV rights revenue for a sport is raised in its home territory and that's where the key competition for rights will be.
In terms of BSkyB's war chest, it's been spent on the Italian and German acquisitions and the company's debt has substantially increased despite the ITV stake proceeds. So it will probably bid sensibly on the Premiership.

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by colin25

I used the virgin offer to discuss a compromise with sky, I will get a 20% discount on my whole sky package. There are positives everywhere

I did exactly the same , I got an excellent discount and now have Sky Sports in HD back.

Thanks VM and BT Sport

[denphone]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

I did exactly the same , I got an excellent discount and now have Sky Sports in HD back.

Thanks VM and BT Sport

Its a bit like my parents who had Sky for many many years and when Virgin offered then a half price deal with BT Sports and fibre optic broadband included they phoned up Sky to see if they could match that offer but sadly Sky refused and now they are getting Virgin installed in a weeks time on a far better deal.

[cityfan247]

VM's sky sports season ticket is a good idea and a step in the right direction to try and cap the expense. But i wish it could be extended to include HD and maybe premier sports and box nation etc to be a truly comprehensive sports 'season ticket' for those who want it.

Retail it at say £200-£250 a year. That's still a fair wedge but offers a very attractive saving for punters. i think that would increase subscriptions enough to increase revenue.

[Chad]

Some really good deals on-line at the moment with Virgin Media. 100.00 credit to your account on their bundles if you order on-line by the 30th July. Plus, for example, if you take a bundle like Big Kahuna the first 6 months are only 25.00 plus line rental meaning your saving a further 120.00 in the first 6 months. Essentially you can add the SKY Sports pass for 10 months, in HD, and Virgin are covering the cost! SKY Sports and BT Sports at no extra cost.

[telegramsam]

Originally Posted by cityfan247

VM's sky sports season ticket is a good idea and a step in the right direction to try and cap the expense. But i wish it could be extended to include HD and maybe premier sports and box nation etc to be a truly comprehensive sports 'season ticket' for those who want it.

Retail it at say £200-£250 a year. That's still a fair wedge but offers a very attractive saving for punters. i think that would increase subscriptions enough to increase revenue.

Wouldn`t be a good deal for me mate as I have no interest in the sports on offer from Premier Sports and Boxnation. I accept it would be for some of course.

[vincerooney]

Originally Posted by telegramsam

Wouldn`t be a good deal for me mate as I have no interest in the sports on offer from Premier Sports and Boxnation. I accept it would be for some of course.

aye i dont see much of value on premier sports myself. i think i watched about an hour of it during the 3 months we had free

[Doug P]

Premier Sports domestic rugby league coverage was quite awful.. would not pay a penny for the channel!

[thenry]

Manchester United legend Paul Scholes signs for BT Sport

Manchester United and England legend signs four-year deal to become a pundit for BT Sport.

http://sport.bt.com/sportfootball/fo...11363923048663

He's brutal but its needed.

[denphone]

l suppose that makes him a expert then.