The schedules for the first 11 days are out. I'm not typing them out in full but in a nutshell it is entirely European football though that includes SPFL.
In the first 11 days there is live:
- Super Cup
- SPFL
- Eredivisie
- Champions League
NB. The SPFL on SS5 is just St Johnstone v Celtic on Wed 13 Aug. Celtic v Dundee Utd on Sat 16 Aug is on SS3.
There is also Soccer Saturday from 12pm to 5.30pm.
The rest of the schedule consists entirely of magazine / filler programmes, ie:
- Good Morning Sports Fans
- CL Weekly
- CL finals of the last 10 years
- Revista de La Liga
- Spanish Gold
- Football's Greatest
The schedules for the first 11 days are out. I'm not typing them out in full but in a nutshell it is entirely European football though that includes SPFL.
In the first 11 days there is live:
- Super Cup
- SPFL
- Eredivisie
- Champions League
NB. The SPFL on SS5 is just St Johnstone v Celtic on Wed 13 Aug. Celtic v Dundee Utd on Sat 16 Aug is on SS3.
There is also Soccer Saturday from 12pm to 5.30pm.
The rest of the schedule consists entirely of magazine / filler programmes, ie:
- Good Morning Sports Fans
- CL Weekly
- CL finals of the last 10 years
- Revista de La Liga
- Spanish Gold
- Football's Greatest
I may be totally wrong here but looking at that line up, come next season it does look very weak.
After this season will they have any Champion League programs/fillers? no I very much doubt it....that would take a pretty decent chunk out of their line up and if they do, and im only say if, lose La Liga it really would look even worse.
In fact 4 out of those 6 programs would be no more.
Sky must be confident that they will retain La Liga or they must be putting together some kind of plan incase it all goes pear shaped.
Thanks for providing the preview into the opening schedules od the channel. As first feared then, it looks like SS5 is going to be something of a damp squib from the point of view of those (such as myself) who were hoping for an abundance of football not currently (or indeed previously) shown on UK channels.
Sky are not like BT where they do games with just commentators etc. They must have a presenter and pundit. Example being for 1am this morning for this pre-season comp with Olympiakos and Milan they had a presenter and two pundits.
Not knocking them for that but you feel if there is just a 2 comm set up or a world feed available for one or two other European leagues not shown on BT then Sky take advantage and fill the channel. Or as someone suggested why not show some 'big games' from the other leagues in Portugal, Turkey etc as one offs like Porto v Benfica. Show various European cup finals. I'm sure ESPN 2-3 years back randomly showed the Turkish cup final.
Sky are not like BT where they do games with just commentators etc. They must have a presenter and pundit. Example being for 1am this morning for this pre-season comp with Olympiakos and Milan they had a presenter and two pundits.
Not knocking them for that but you feel if there is just a 2 comm set up or a world feed available for one or two other European leagues not shown on BT then Sky take advantage and fill the channel. Or as someone suggested why not show some 'big games' from the other leagues in Portugal, Turkey etc as one offs like Porto v Benfica.
How would that benefit them though? SS5 will come into its own when the European Qualifiers etc begin. Plus keep in mind that the channels itself is nothing more than a marketing ploy.
Adding small leagues just for the sake of it would attract zero new subscribers plus if they wanted to show specific matches from the Portuguese league for example, they'd have to pay for the entire live package on offer (even if it would be considered peanuts in comparison to other leagues) - what would be the point in that if they only planned to show Porto v Benfica? There would be no interest in the other fixtures. If there was a tiny amount of interest in a league like Portugal's, it would already be shown on BT or even Eurosport might have dipped in... but nobody has.
Totally agree with post #306 - as much as I would love to see Sky adding content not currently shown the likelihood of it happening is zero.
I'd be quite happy with coverage with world feed comms such as what ESPN deployed for the Russian league. But Sky don't share that vision and as someone pointed out when you see what they want to for the coverage of a pre-season friendly between Milan-Olympiacos there is no scope for alternative coverage such as what we saw with Setanta and ESPN (pre-BT).
Personally my preference is to see the football; the pre- and post-amble coverage of the game interests me not one jot.
Which site has the updated listings? Digiguide doesn't even seem to be listing the channel at the moment (unless the more expensive download version is more comprehensive than the paid online version? Always wondered what the extra £12 was for)
Which site has the updated listings? Digiguide doesn't even seem to be listing the channel at the moment (unless the more expensive download version is more comprehensive than the paid online version? Always wondered what the extra £12 was for)
Sky Programme Information website.
It's not publicly available but a few posters on here have access.
Contrary to several posts, I understand the current Serie A rights are actually due to end after the 2014-15 season. And, the international tv rights for the period 2015-2018 are to go up for auction soon. Although I would hope BT Sport ( with the brilliant James Richardson and the excellent European Football show) retain the Italian rights, Sky Sports 5 may sneak in...
Contrary to several posts, I understand the current Serie A rights are actually due to end after the 2014-15 season. And, the international tv rights for the period 2015-2018 are to go up for auction soon. Although I would hope BT Sport ( with the brilliant James Richardson and the excellent European Football show) retain the Italian rights, Sky Sports 5 may sneak in...
Do you have any source for your contrary understanding? Seemingly you haven't posted anything at all on here for over 4 years so perhaps you wouldn't mind being reminded or asked for a source or a link or to back up the dates and info you have stated just as a bit of evidence and you would be all right with that and be able to do that?
It was or it is difficult to be certain about the Ligue 1 and Serie A rights because the BT press release described the deal as "multiyear" or for "multiple" years ie quite literally for more than one year.
Do any of the regular posters have a way to doublecheck this or are we all all right that BT have both those leagues (all 380 games for both each year exclusive) until end 2017/18?
A very minor point but sky small print for broadband offer says champs lge on 2014/15 only. Does not mention la liga (inference that rights awarded to sky or not tendered yet)
Infront are due to conduct the international rights tender for Serie A in the coming months - whether that includes the UK is I guess dependent on whether BT somehow managed to extend their Serie A deal out of synch with the domestic Serie A TV deal.
I've always been somewhat sceptical about that post on the BT care forum - I guess we will find out in the coming months if it's correct or not. Of course, even if the rights are up for renewal it doesn't mean Sky will win them for SS5 - BT were keen to point out that Sky bid for Bundesliga rights but lost out. Perhaps Sky bidding for the Bundesliga, even though they lost, was an early sign that they were considering something along the lines of SS5.
Nothing spelled out word for word but, I would say I have strong evidence (as outlined below) to back up my understanding that the Serie A rights on BT Sport are due to expire at the end of the 2014/15 season, and therefore Sky Sports 5 (who, lets not forget have the Coppa Italia rights) may enter the race when the international rights are next made available. I'm not saying BT won't try retaining it. I hope they do - as I posted here initially.
Let me take you back to 2009, when ESPN UK launched, if I may...
2009/10
Media Partners and Silva (MP & Silva) were selling the Serie A international rights at the time (for the UK market at least).
2010/11 & 2011/12
Advised by Infront Sports, the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons were the first time the Serie A rights (domestic & international) were sold collectively (you'll note the international included rights to Serie B too).
As for that BT Care forum answer, not too sure. A typo, mixing it up with the Ligue 1 rights...?
2015/16, 2016/17 & 2017/18
The next set of international Serie A rights will also be for three years. Infront Sports recently concluded the domestic rights sales.
The international tender is planned for launch soon, however, news of the successful UK broadcaster - we might have to wait until the last minute again... probably sometime in July/August 2015!
So to conclude, I ask this question... Would a broadcaster have rights to a property even though the rights to that property for a new period has not been made available yet?
Nothing spelled out word for word but, I would say I have strong evidence (as outlined below) to back up my understanding that the Serie A rights on BT Sport are due to expire at the end of the 2014/15 season, and therefore Sky Sports 5 (who, lets not forget have the Coppa Italia rights) may enter the race when the international rights are next made available. I'm not saying BT won't try retaining it. I hope they do - as I posted here initially.
Let me take you back to 2009, when ESPN UK launched, if I may...
2009/10
Media Partners and Silva (MP & Silva) were selling the Serie A international rights at the time (for the UK market at least).
2010/11 & 2011/12
Advised by Infront Sports, the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons were the first time the Serie A rights (domestic & international) were sold collectively (you'll note the international tender included rights to Serie B too).
As for that BT Care forum answer, not too sure... A typo, mixing it up with the Ligue 1 rights...?
2015/16, 2016/17 & 2017/18
The next set of international Serie A rights will also be for three years. Infront Sports have just recently concluded the domestic rights sales.
The international tender is planned for launch soon, however, news of the successful UK broadcaster - we might have to wait until the last minute again... probably sometime in July/August 2015!
So to conclude, I ask this question... Would a broadcaster have rights to a property even though the rights to that property for a new period has not been made available yet?
With the BT care forum, one would like to think that the info given is categorically correct. However it doesn't seem verifiable anywhere else. We have no idea there who checked what and how. Could even be confused with the CL/EL rights which are up to and including end of 2017/18. If BT have the rights for Ligue 1/Serie A up to and including 2017/18 then it should be a relatively easy thing to get an answer on but nothing really definite is publicly available it seems.
Could you also advise me on the following or refer my query to the relevant department?
I would like verification of how long BT Sport have the rights to show Ligue 1 and Serie A football. It says here that Ligue 1 and Serie A rights are up to and including the season 2017-18:
"We have the Ligue 1 rights up to & including season 2017/18. We also have the Serie A rights up to & including season 2017/18."
We have the Ligue 1 rights up to & including season 2017/18. We also have the Serie A rights up to & including season 2017/18. Thsi is all the information we currently have on this issue.
Best Wishes,
I went through the Getting Information/Our Product email contact form a fortnight ago about any extra info regards the BT Sport red button service (currently testing on Sky digital satellite platform). We went back and forth once on that with a designated advisor assigning themselves to me and so I replied to the later email about that with the new query which should explain the rapidity of the response - if that is otherwise questionable.
Can we say that if they get back with info like that then they do have the Serie A rights up to and including 2017/18 - even though it may perhaps seem odd that they have circumvented the international rights cycle (the UK rights perhaps have somehow been negotiated ahead of those and separately? I don't know how perhaps because of whatever money and security they dazzled whoever dealt with that over at Serie A)?
How do I activate SS5 on multiroom? It's been done downstairs..
Its just part of the normal Sky Sports package, this whole "activate" just seems to be marketing spin, it will just appear next week if you ring them/press the red button or not as far as I can work out.
How do I activate SS5 on multiroom? It's been done downstairs..
You don't need to do anything. If you have activated SS5 and have multiroom it will automatically apply to all multiroom boxes - you don't have to activate on each box.
I would argue that you dont actually have to "activate" at all, there is no way in this world or the next that anyone already with Sky Sports who doesnt ring up/press the red button will not have the channel when it launches.
I would argue that you dont actually have to "activate" at all, there is no way in this world or the next that anyone already with Sky Sports who doesnt ring up/press the red button will not have the channel when it launches.
Yes I found it strange they're "requiring" people to activate it. Presumably hoping most sign up for the broadband and lock themselves into two more years with Sky - "free" broadband but paying Sky line rental, TV fees etc.
Yup, the only reason I can see you have to ring up is so they can push the free broadband.
You don't have to ring up; I activated the channel through the red button without taking up the broadband and was then sent a letter from Sky reminding me about it.
On a more general point, the thing this battle between BT and Sky over European football has made me wonder most Is - how much do football viewers want it anyway?
You'd think from the way the two companies have been scrabbling for every major scrap that viewers are clamouring to watch every available match from Portugal or Holland or France or wherever, but aren't the majority simply interested in watching the key games from Spain, Italy and Germany and not too bothered about the rest?
It seems to me that both channels are guilty of trying to make European football a bigger deal in people's minds than it actually is.
Comments
In the first 11 days there is live:
- Super Cup
- SPFL
- Eredivisie
- Champions League
NB. The SPFL on SS5 is just St Johnstone v Celtic on Wed 13 Aug. Celtic v Dundee Utd on Sat 16 Aug is on SS3.
There is also Soccer Saturday from 12pm to 5.30pm.
The rest of the schedule consists entirely of magazine / filler programmes, ie:
- Good Morning Sports Fans
- CL Weekly
- CL finals of the last 10 years
- Revista de La Liga
- Spanish Gold
- Football's Greatest
I may be totally wrong here but looking at that line up, come next season it does look very weak.
After this season will they have any Champion League programs/fillers? no I very much doubt it....that would take a pretty decent chunk out of their line up and if they do, and im only say if, lose La Liga it really would look even worse.
In fact 4 out of those 6 programs would be no more.
Sky must be confident that they will retain La Liga or they must be putting together some kind of plan incase it all goes pear shaped.
Not knocking them for that but you feel if there is just a 2 comm set up or a world feed available for one or two other European leagues not shown on BT then Sky take advantage and fill the channel. Or as someone suggested why not show some 'big games' from the other leagues in Portugal, Turkey etc as one offs like Porto v Benfica. Show various European cup finals. I'm sure ESPN 2-3 years back randomly showed the Turkish cup final.
How would that benefit them though? SS5 will come into its own when the European Qualifiers etc begin. Plus keep in mind that the channels itself is nothing more than a marketing ploy.
Adding small leagues just for the sake of it would attract zero new subscribers plus if they wanted to show specific matches from the Portuguese league for example, they'd have to pay for the entire live package on offer (even if it would be considered peanuts in comparison to other leagues) - what would be the point in that if they only planned to show Porto v Benfica? There would be no interest in the other fixtures. If there was a tiny amount of interest in a league like Portugal's, it would already be shown on BT or even Eurosport might have dipped in... but nobody has.
I'd be quite happy with coverage with world feed comms such as what ESPN deployed for the Russian league. But Sky don't share that vision and as someone pointed out when you see what they want to for the coverage of a pre-season friendly between Milan-Olympiacos there is no scope for alternative coverage such as what we saw with Setanta and ESPN (pre-BT).
Personally my preference is to see the football; the pre- and post-amble coverage of the game interests me not one jot.
Sky Programme Information website.
It's not publicly available but a few posters on here have access.
Do you have any source for your contrary understanding? Seemingly you haven't posted anything at all on here for over 4 years so perhaps you wouldn't mind being reminded or asked for a source or a link or to back up the dates and info you have stated just as a bit of evidence and you would be all right with that and be able to do that?
It was or it is difficult to be certain about the Ligue 1 and Serie A rights because the BT press release described the deal as "multiyear" or for "multiple" years ie quite literally for more than one year.
However, there was an answer given on the BT Care Community forum by a moderator that the rights were "up to & including season 2017/18".
https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Sport/Ligue-1-rights-after-this-season/td-p/1230079
Do any of the regular posters have a way to doublecheck this or are we all all right that BT have both those leagues (all 380 games for both each year exclusive) until end 2017/18?
http://www.infrontsports.com/news/2014/05/lega-serie-a-and-infront-launch-tender-process-for-domestic-broadcasting-rights-to-serie-a-for-the-2015-to-2018-seasons/
I've always been somewhat sceptical about that post on the BT care forum - I guess we will find out in the coming months if it's correct or not. Of course, even if the rights are up for renewal it doesn't mean Sky will win them for SS5 - BT were keen to point out that Sky bid for Bundesliga rights but lost out. Perhaps Sky bidding for the Bundesliga, even though they lost, was an early sign that they were considering something along the lines of SS5.
Nothing spelled out word for word but, I would say I have strong evidence (as outlined below) to back up my understanding that the Serie A rights on BT Sport are due to expire at the end of the 2014/15 season, and therefore Sky Sports 5 (who, lets not forget have the Coppa Italia rights) may enter the race when the international rights are next made available. I'm not saying BT won't try retaining it. I hope they do - as I posted here initially.
Let me take you back to 2009, when ESPN UK launched, if I may...
2009/10
Media Partners and Silva (MP & Silva) were selling the Serie A international rights at the time (for the UK market at least).
In Aug 2009, ESPN UK (just launched in the UK) purchased the rights. It was just for one season. DS News Article:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a259009/espn-renews-serie-a-mls-rights-deals.html#~oLVLSTErq5K5c5
2010/11 & 2011/12
Advised by Infront Sports, the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons were the first time the Serie A rights (domestic & international) were sold collectively (you'll note the international included rights to Serie B too).
International Tender:
http://www.legaseriea.it/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=2f56d0ed-ce27-4878-8278-c18cca763b82&groupId=10192
The two-year international rights on offer were again purchased by MP & Silva.
In Aug 2010, ESPN UK renewed the Serie A rights (2 more years). DS News Article:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a259009/espn-renews-serie-a-mls-rights-deals.html#~oLVLSTErq5K5c5
2012/13, 2013/14 & 2014/15
The next set of Serie A rights were offered by Infront Sports for a three-year period.
International Tender:
http://www.legaseriea.it/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=df9b457d-601e-4f22-a20e-6e807859fed4&groupId=10192
Again, MP & Silva picked up the international rights.
In July 2012, ESPN UK renewed the Serie A rights (for three years). DS News Article:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a395225/espn-snaps-up-french-ligue-1-football-rights.html#~oLVLUtIbJTDJfD
As we know, BT Sport launched in 2013 and took over ESPN's sports rights portfolio, including Serie A (and the remaining two years).
In Nov 2012, BT Sport announced that they had snapped up Serie A from ESPN. DS News Article:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a436090/bt-deals-further-blow-to-espn-with-new-rights-deals.html#~oLWewlIKWWBGR9
BT's press release and the wording of "multiple years" could easily mean the two years that they do have the rights for currently:
http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/ShowArticle.cfm?ArticleID=38DA6D3C-0BAA-49BD-89F4-A703DE91345D
As for that BT Care forum answer, not too sure. A typo, mixing it up with the Ligue 1 rights...?
2015/16, 2016/17 & 2017/18
The next set of international Serie A rights will also be for three years. Infront Sports recently concluded the domestic rights sales.
(FYI only - Domestic Tender:
http://www.legaseriea.it/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=2f56d0ed-ce27-4878-8278-c18cca763b82&groupId=10192)
The international tender is planned for launch soon, however, news of the successful UK broadcaster - we might have to wait until the last minute again... probably sometime in July/August 2015!
So to conclude, I ask this question... Would a broadcaster have rights to a property even though the rights to that property for a new period has not been made available yet?
In response to post #312 & #314...
Nothing spelled out word for word but, I would say I have strong evidence (as outlined below) to back up my understanding that the Serie A rights on BT Sport are due to expire at the end of the 2014/15 season, and therefore Sky Sports 5 (who, lets not forget have the Coppa Italia rights) may enter the race when the international rights are next made available. I'm not saying BT won't try retaining it. I hope they do - as I posted here initially.
Let me take you back to 2009, when ESPN UK launched, if I may...
2009/10
Media Partners and Silva (MP & Silva) were selling the Serie A international rights at the time (for the UK market at least).
In Aug 2009, ESPN UK purchased the rights. It was just for one season. DS News Article:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a259009/espn-renews-serie-a-mls-rights-deals.html#~oLVLSTErq5K5c5
2010/11 & 2011/12
Advised by Infront Sports, the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons were the first time the Serie A rights (domestic & international) were sold collectively (you'll note the international tender included rights to Serie B too).
International Tender:
http://www.legaseriea.it/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=2f56d0ed-ce27-4878-8278-c18cca763b82&groupId=10192
The two-year international rights on offer were purchased by MP & Silva.
In Aug 2010, ESPN UK renewed the Serie A rights (2 more years). DS News Article:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a259009/espn-renews-serie-a-mls-rights-deals.html#~oLVLSTErq5K5c5
2012/13, 2013/14 & 2014/15
The next set of Serie A rights were offered by Infront Sports for a three-year period.
International Tender:
http://www.legaseriea.it/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=df9b457d-601e-4f22-a20e-6e807859fed4&groupId=10192
Again, MP & Silva picked up the international rights.
In July 2012, ESPN UK renewed the Serie A rights (for three years). DS News Article:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a395225/espn-snaps-up-french-ligue-1-football-rights.html#~oLVLUtIbJTDJfD
As we know, BT Sport launched in 2013 and took over ESPN's sports rights portfolio, including Serie A (and the remaining two years).
BT Sport announced that they had snapped up Serie A from ESPN in Nov 2012. DS News Article:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a436090/bt-deals-further-blow-to-espn-with-new-rights-deals.html#~oLWewlIKWWBGR9
BT's official press release and the wording of "multiple years" could quite easily translate to the two years that they do have the Serie A rights for currently and also does refer to the other football rights too:
http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/ShowArticle.cfm?ArticleID=38DA6D3C-0BAA-49BD-89F4-A703DE91345D
As for that BT Care forum answer, not too sure... A typo, mixing it up with the Ligue 1 rights...?
2015/16, 2016/17 & 2017/18
The next set of international Serie A rights will also be for three years. Infront Sports have just recently concluded the domestic rights sales.
FYI - Domestic Tender:
http://www.legaseriea.it/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=2f56d0ed-ce27-4878-8278-c18cca763b82&groupId=10192
http://www.infrontsports.com/news/2014/05/lega-serie-a-and-infront-launch-tender-process-for-domestic-broadcasting-rights-to-serie-a-for-the-2015-to-2018-seasons/
The international tender is planned for launch soon, however, news of the successful UK broadcaster - we might have to wait until the last minute again... probably sometime in July/August 2015!
So to conclude, I ask this question... Would a broadcaster have rights to a property even though the rights to that property for a new period has not been made available yet?
It doesn't specify there that ESPN UK renewed Serie A for 3 years.
Ultimately, the BT care forum reply is hardly much to go on to settle the issue conclusively either. A comparison would be the Sky Sports Eredivisie announcement which clearly specified a 4-year deal 2014-18:
https://corporate.sky.com/media/press_releases/2014/sky_sports_launches_new_channel_dedicated_to_european_football
With the BT care forum, one would like to think that the info given is categorically correct. However it doesn't seem verifiable anywhere else. We have no idea there who checked what and how. Could even be confused with the CL/EL rights which are up to and including end of 2017/18. If BT have the rights for Ligue 1/Serie A up to and including 2017/18 then it should be a relatively easy thing to get an answer on but nothing really definite is publicly available it seems.
This was the response:
I went through the Getting Information/Our Product email contact form a fortnight ago about any extra info regards the BT Sport red button service (currently testing on Sky digital satellite platform). We went back and forth once on that with a designated advisor assigning themselves to me and so I replied to the later email about that with the new query which should explain the rapidity of the response - if that is otherwise questionable.
Can we say that if they get back with info like that then they do have the Serie A rights up to and including 2017/18 - even though it may perhaps seem odd that they have circumvented the international rights cycle (the UK rights perhaps have somehow been negotiated ahead of those and separately? I don't know how perhaps because of whatever money and security they dazzled whoever dealt with that over at Serie A)?
A direct response to SS5 coming along?
Its just part of the normal Sky Sports package, this whole "activate" just seems to be marketing spin, it will just appear next week if you ring them/press the red button or not as far as I can work out.
You don't need to do anything. If you have activated SS5 and have multiroom it will automatically apply to all multiroom boxes - you don't have to activate on each box.
- Sky keep La Liga - they carry on as is and make do with La Liga, Eredivisie, some SPL and maybe another league like the Russian league.
- Sky lose La Liga to BT / someone else - Sky Sports 5 becomes "just another Sky Sports channel" after this season.
Yes I found it strange they're "requiring" people to activate it. Presumably hoping most sign up for the broadband and lock themselves into two more years with Sky - "free" broadband but paying Sky line rental, TV fees etc.
You don't have to ring up; I activated the channel through the red button without taking up the broadband and was then sent a letter from Sky reminding me about it.
On a more general point, the thing this battle between BT and Sky over European football has made me wonder most Is - how much do football viewers want it anyway?
You'd think from the way the two companies have been scrabbling for every major scrap that viewers are clamouring to watch every available match from Portugal or Holland or France or wherever, but aren't the majority simply interested in watching the key games from Spain, Italy and Germany and not too bothered about the rest?
It seems to me that both channels are guilty of trying to make European football a bigger deal in people's minds than it actually is.