Is Eurosport UK a failing sports channel?
linkinpark875
Posts: 29,702 Forum Member
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They could have so much potential but they are crap. The quality of broadcast is stuck in the 90's despite switching to 16:9 and HD. Sound is dire and some sports shows they have I don't know why they bother.
*They let a permanent deal for the PGA Tour slip to Sky despite having it for a year.
*They failed to show Europa League qualifiers in HD due to it being the international HD channel on Sky.
*Still no Eurosport News on a full time channel.
*I hear the German channel has the French Football but the UK channel doesn't.
I know it's not a premium service but they could still offer more. It's not a channel you associate with Freeview but remember many years back they actually mulled over a launch? http://www.digitalspy.ie/digitaltv/news/a10482/no-plans-for-eurosport-launch-on-freeview.html
How different would it be if they are the UK's number one FTA sports channel? Thing is half of what they have is on the BBC and in HD for free! :eek: Not too late for the channel to come though but the channel for me doesn't have the appeal it once had.
*They let a permanent deal for the PGA Tour slip to Sky despite having it for a year.
*They failed to show Europa League qualifiers in HD due to it being the international HD channel on Sky.
*Still no Eurosport News on a full time channel.
*I hear the German channel has the French Football but the UK channel doesn't.
I know it's not a premium service but they could still offer more. It's not a channel you associate with Freeview but remember many years back they actually mulled over a launch? http://www.digitalspy.ie/digitaltv/news/a10482/no-plans-for-eurosport-launch-on-freeview.html
How different would it be if they are the UK's number one FTA sports channel? Thing is half of what they have is on the BBC and in HD for free! :eek: Not too late for the channel to come though but the channel for me doesn't have the appeal it once had.
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...its a question of money or their lack of willingness to spend it....... and its really based around minority sporting events.
I get the impression it missed its window some years ago!.
Indeed but when Setanta went into administration they had plenty of picking on much of the rights before ESPN got them. The best they done was a temporary deal for PGA before Sky swooped it for a ten year deal.
Just wondering if anybody knows the difference between the UK venture and Eurosport Europe anyway? Many will remember Eurosport International which was before the UK one was it not? Bit like Viacom and MTV?
Sadly Eurosport is yet another channel frozen in time.
About the difference, the UK side of it is just an off shoot from the french version who basically run the whole thing.
The UK version just opts out and does its own thing when it comes to stuff like 'Showjumping' and some tennis tournaments..
Its all a bit chaotic actually but the budget is very limited when compared to other broadcasters. Once they went off Freeview I think they became too irrelevant.
They were on Top Up TV so there max potential audience was only ever 250k.
However they missed a trick by not going free-to-air and acquiring there own Freeview slot.
I thought they were on Freeview for a while and not just part of TUTV...I apologise for my duff info....make the most of my apology....it doesn't happen too often!!!!!!:D
As for not having a dedicated news channel, they had that in the past and dropped it, quite rightly too in my opinion as they had plenty of live sport to show which needed a second channel.
Their coverage of many sports is unrivled and where coverage is duplicated with other channels, such as the last summer olympics with the BBC, many people who have the choice prefer Eurosport. The concentration on what is actually happening rather than inane studio chatter is very welcome. They have also shown interesting complementary programming such as 'Eurosport for the planet', a monthly series looking at the environmental challanges that are facing global sporting events.
There is talk of a second HD channel being launched, which would help solve the problem of the low quality of some of their SD broadcasts, particularly those on BE2. The other area in which they fall down is an inability to update the EPG, at least on the Sky digital platform.
Yes, they are showing a T20 tournament between Caribbean islands in January.
No such joy here.
They let ESPN have that.
Yes. The biggest problem with the BBC's sports coverage is their willingness to go back to the studio for chatter with anyone about anything, especially if they are a "zeleb". Tiresome, especially when there is action going on that they miss/can't be bothered with.
*Admits* the BBC are much better when it's red-button so the studio claptrap is frozen out.
As another poster touched on, we need Eurosport (and laola1.tv) to cover sports that aren't "mainstream" but lots of us are interested in. I'ts nice, sometimes, to sit on a Saturday with a nice cup of coffee and just endulge oneself in a full day's ski-jumping or biathlon.
BTW Eurosport has a good web player service of which there is plenty that isn't on ES1, 2 or HD, such as this week where there is comprehensive coverage of the Euro Curling champs.
If you want football, football and more bloody football, get a Sky sub, the rest of us need a different channel.
Yes but the UK channel could still do more. It's been 5 years since UKTV trialed a sports channel on UKTVG2: http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1586586,00.html it covered Olympics, Hockey and Basketball and some minority sports. Could do with a few more fishing programmes too. What about Table Tennis?
The UK channel is seriously under delivering. What they should do is launch a line up of Eurosport UK, Eurosport International (same feed as the HD channel), and Eurosport 2. Let the UK channel go a bit more "wild" on acquiring some UK related rights.
Why do you have such a hard on for Ligue 1?
Eurosport carries Premier League and Bundesliga football in Eastern Europe. Different countries, different schedules. The French version shows Ligue 2 - should the UK version too?
For how many extra viewers? There is a balance between the amount they spend on rights and the amount of income they produce. They're not a public service broadcaster, they exist to make profit.
Thank goodness for that!!
volleyball,
tennis
ice-hockey
hockey
basketball
handball
wintersports
highlights of European soccer (or live if you know how to use a proxy as they don't have the rights to stream live in the UK)
then I will direct you to laola1.tv where in additional to the live stuff there is plenty in the vault. The more that watch, the more rights they can afford to obtain.
Oh, and it's free. just click and watch, so if there's nothing there for you, you've lost nowt!!
Might be an idea fi Eurosport and Laola1 could merge and have a TV service with more rights and greater variety, and a web service to compliment/add to it, although we might lose the "free" service Laola1 provides.
They do seem to have got a lot better with this in recent months. I'd say 9 times out of 10 now when I've flicked onto the channel, the EPG matches the sport being shown on screen.
Agreed. I had the fortune of being able to watch Eurosport 2's coverage of Schalke v Bayern last weekend and as a whole it was excellent. Great commentary and comprehensive highlights of the rest of the weekend's other matches. I enjoyed the pitchside presentation from the big match too.
It's a shame Eurosport's Bundesliga rights can't be extended to the UK. ESPN do a good job as far as their commentators and highlights are concerned but as their schedule only allows them to screen roughly one or two of the four stand-alone Bundesliga fixtures each weekend, plus maybe one more as-live, their coverage will never be as complete as Eurosport's is in mainland Europe. It's a shame both broadcasters can't share full UK rights to the Bundesliga.
For complete Bundesliga coverage here, your best bet (no pun intended) is to sign up for an online account with Bwin or Bet365 and watch there, as every game from both German divisions is legally streamed on those websites.
As I say if the channel was free on Freesat/Freeview less people may moan.
They DO update the Sky EPG now, Red Bee Media handle this on their behalf. I have personally seen a massive improvement in this area, and have had my recordings "saved" from missing the end of GP2 races as a result of them updating the Sky EPG.
Hopefully, Eurosport will continue to show
GP2
GP3; and
World Series By Renault
in addition to Auto GP and WTCC (and of course, Le Mans and Moto GP), to remain as the one of the premier broadcasters of motorsport in the UK. This is another strength of the channel in my opinion.
Although GP2 has been pre-empted on British Eurosport too often, due to them holding rights to UK centric events (e.g. snooker and darts).