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BT Sport step into the big time

So...BT Sport have payed the ludicrous sum of of £900m to show both the Champions Leage & Europa football from season 2015-16

Sky lost 1.5billion off their shares yesterday on the back of this news, for which heads will roll i'd think.

So what will this mean to current Sky customers & terrstrial (ITV) viewers when this comes in...?

How are BT going to fund this ( which I think is something like double Sky's last bid) I don't think they have the current customer base, & this is less than two seasons away.

Last time I looked it was £15 to have BT Sport channel on Sky, which for me isn't currently worth getting for 38 matches (which I think are mainly lunchtime kick offs)

Are Sky Sports going to drop their current package price..? I doubt it

I also enquired as to changing to BT Internet to get this service free, but they still wanted £3 a month on top for HD coverage even then..

Also unsure what the viewing figures are for Europa games..I watched the Chelsea games last term, but havn't watched any this season

I invite comments...

Admins can you open up to all main boards






posted on 12/11/13

Hmmm depends if Sky just bend over and let BT screw them over. Doubt it to be honest. I expect Sky to not be so complacent next time.

posted on 12/11/13

They may not have a choice.

posted on 12/11/13

This is a good deal for UEFA and its bigger clubs, it's a bad deal for football fans as sooner or later the World Cup will be Pay-TV too. In fact didn't UEFA and FIFA try to implement that in the UK and the European Commission had to stop it?

Football would be remarkably different now had Thatcher not given Murdoch the license to take English football to Sky under the grounds of "competition" when the first thing he did was get exclusivity.

posted on 12/11/13

This is a good deal for UEFA and its bigger clubs, it's a bad deal for football fans as sooner or later the World Cup will be Pay-TV too.
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This would mean no Lawro at the world cup.

posted on 12/11/13

I wouldn't watch it if that happened, I'd probably just die.

posted on 12/11/13

posted on 12/11/13

Champions league won't be the same without Martin Tyler and Gary Neville

posted on 13/11/13

comment by Mr.Chelsea ✪ (U3579)
posted 20 hours, 19 minutes ago
Dougherty Dany

11 November 2013 11:00am
Recommend
13

I cant see this really effecting Sky in the long term.Most Champions League games on Sky attract a small audience.The cash cow is the EPL as long as Sky has the Gold picks cant see a big change.BT coverage is amateur and their presenters are trully awful.

Technically the lack of fiber roll out over the years and the lack of finacial investment in equipment at the exchanges by BT is now causing them major issues.

Advertisers are certainly not going to be happy with sub 500,000 audiences and I can see this deal killing interest in the Champions League that is allready dwindelling.

Sky are no mugs and know that the figures dont add up.If one actually looks at this deal its awful for BT and their board should be looking long and hard at the money they will lose.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr C

You got any sources on this small & dwindling CL audience thing....I don't buy it myself

Cheers M'dear..

posted on 13/11/13

sheriff

i copied that from the guardian blog mate. there's some interesting comments on there.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/11/bt-champions-league-deal-hits-bskyb-shares#start-of-comments

posted on 3/12/13

Mr C

sorry didn't get back to this...yeah read that...this paragraph surprised me

BSkyB declined to predict what it might pay in future auctions, although the importance of English football to the channel is clear. The Champions League accounts for less than 3% of total viewing across Sky Sports, against 19% for the Premier League.

Didn't realise the CL was such a small audience

Not inclined to get BT sport tho all the same...actually got a decent stream loaded on the PC which works well currently anyway
What i'll do with Sky sports in time to come is unclear yet though..


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