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Sports Channels In The Uk

leicslad46leicslad46 Posts: 3,370
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in Broadcasting #1
I have noticed that in north america there are specialist sports channels that focus on one sport like mlb nfl golf and nhl. Could there be a day that we in the uk have sports channels dedicated to just one sport one for football cricket and rugby

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  • markssmithmarkssmith Posts: 141
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    #2
    We have already for Formula One but Sky keep renaming their channels to make them look like they are only for that sport (Sky Ashes)
  • leicslad46leicslad46 Posts: 3,370
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    #3
    markssmith wrote: »
    We have already for Formula One but Sky keep renaming their channels to make them look like they are only for that sport (Sky Ashes)
    I know that sky have a dedicated channel to f1 and also cricket with ashes series but could we one for football and rugby
  • promo-onlypromo-only Posts: 3,315
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    #4
    leicslad46 wrote: »
    I have noticed that in north america there are specialist sports channels that focus on one sport like mlb nfl golf and nhl. Could there be a day that we in the uk have sports channels dedicated to just one sport one for football cricket and rugby

    In future? Who knows. At present? No. Overseas broadcasters have dedicated channels for all manner of things - they don't have any restrictions in place and can show all the things all the time, so to speak! Absolutely no point in having dedicated channels when most of the time it'd be the same programming on loop. May as well keep a varied selection as now.

    In the US, MLB Network, NFL Network, Golf Channel and NHL Network aren't broadcasters of the best live content. They do show live events but their schedules are mostly delayed coverage and magazine programming. All the best stuff is still broadcast on dedicated all-round sports channels like ESPN, NBCSN, Fox Sports and local sports networks etc.
  • stevvy1986stevvy1986 Posts: 7,085
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    #5
    1 of the issues though is how do you fill the airtime. Sky has classic F1 races, F1, GP2, GP3, Porsche Supercup highlights, the F1 show, legends etc, but there's only so many times you can show the same thing over and over, and that's not even a 24/7 channel.

    Football you could probably manage to make work, golf I don't think you could (though I know there's lots of tournaments), Rugby (league and union) you maybe could, but there's various sports where I just don't think you can fill the schedule enough.

    If you had a Sky Sports America (for example) with various American sports (NBA, NHL, NFL, baseball, NASCAR and their feeder series, classic events in those sports, highlights etc, then that could possibly work, but most sports with their own dedicated channel just wouldn't have enough to fill the schedule anything close to enough in my view.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 763
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    #6
    You also have to take into account the way that the TV rights are sold across the US, the big channels get National games but the rest are sold to local TV companies that broadcast the remainder of the games within thier own areas.
  • big_hard_ladbig_hard_lad Posts: 4,077
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    #7
    I'd love a return of a Sky Sports Gold channel...especially in the absence of ESPN Classic these days. Sky must have an absolute ton of archive stuff they could fill it with.
  • MarkG6RMarkG6R Posts: 202
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    #8
    Setanta had a dedicated Golf Channel on their package before they went bust. There isn't really much appetite for it except when Broadcasters want to make a big noise about their new rights acquisitions.
  • wal28wal28 Posts: 1,199
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    #9
    Setanta also for a while had Setanta Football - it lasted for about 6 weeks towards the end of a season. I think it might have been 2005/06

    Personally I am surprised that there isn't more appetite to show a free-to-air football channel that would have live broadcasting of leagues not already shown and would focus on the betting market potentially displaying live odds in game.

    SportsXchange tried something like that with the Brazilian league and PrimeTime tried something like that too with the Polish league last year, but evidently neither of those experiments worked.

    I gather that watch+bet rights on the streaming sites such as Bet365 are far cheaper to acquire than outright TV rights. And then of course there are production costs, sourcing commentators as well as transmission. Not to mention acquiring a slot on the Sky platform. None of which comes for free by any means...

    But still taking all that into account I still think if you made a proper go of it, made the channel free to air you might get a return on investment from advertising and the promotion of live odd during live games.

    So, delving deep into the realms of fantasy Sunday's schedule taking into account leagues that aren't currently under contract to the best of my knowledge in the UK:

    3.30 ADO Den Haag-Feyenoord (delayed)
    5.30 PSV-AZ (delayed)
    7.30 Tigres-Pumas UNAM (delayed)
    9.30 Atlas-Club America (delayed)
    11.30 Vitesse-NEC Nijmegen (live)
    13.30 Go Ahead-Ajax (live)
    15.15 PAOK-Veria (join in progress)
    17.00 Gaziantepsor-Galatasary (live)
    18.50 Hapoel Tel Aviv-Beitar (live)
    21.00 Anderlecht-Blub Brugge (delayed)
    23.00 Atlante-Chivas
    01.00 Racing Genk-AA Gent (delayed)

    Anyway total and utter fantasy, pie in the sky stuff much a little outline of my vision if I had unlimited resources...
  • Daryl_SlinnDaryl_Slinn Posts: 176
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    #10
    Don't forget we had NASN which in turn became ESPN America and throughout the whole Setanta debacle this channel actually came out the other end in some shape or form and continued to show North American sports.
    What American sports fans have now is a very diluted ESPN channel with the NBA on BT Sport.
  • malcy30malcy30 Posts: 7,161
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    #11
    You can tell how fanatical India is with cricket as when there for work there were 5 or 6 channels showing it. You had a couple with the live games Indian and overseas! whilst the others 24/7, had highlights, old games and chat / phone in shows for cricket.

    With regard to betting presume on screen is banned in UK ? as football on the Scandinavian sports channels, regularly has odds overlaid on the pictures for in running betting. However those like Viasat broadcast from the same business park in Chiswick as Discovery Networks Europe to get around local betting restrictions.
  • BhaveshgorBhaveshgor Posts: 9,312
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    #12
    malcy30 wrote: »
    You can tell how fanatical India is with cricket as when there for work there were 5 or 6 channels showing it. You had a couple with the live games Indian and overseas! whilst the others 24/7, had highlights, old games and chat / phone in shows for cricket.

    With regard to betting presume on screen is banned in UK ? as football on the Scandinavian sports channels, regularly has odds overlaid on the pictures for in running betting. However those like Viasat broadcast from the same business park in Chiswick as Discovery Networks Europe to get around local betting restrictions.
    Yes but even Star Sport scrapped its cricket channel so it can persuade and promote the indian public to watch other sports it covers, instead of everyone watching Star Cricket.
    http://www.business-standard.com/article/management/star-unifies-branding-for-sports-113110500947_1.html
  • wal28wal28 Posts: 1,199
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    #13
    malcy30 wrote: »
    With regard to betting presume on screen is banned in UK ? as football on the Scandinavian sports channels, regularly has odds overlaid on the pictures for in running betting. However those like Viasat broadcast from the same business park in Chiswick as Discovery Networks Europe to get around local betting restrictions.

    You get something similiar on Turkish TV with in game betting ad or be in minus fixed odds. I seem to recall SportsXchange offering odds on the bottom of the screen via a ticker which would come across from time-to-time.

    I was unaware that it was actually legally not possible to do such a thing (it seems like such an obvious thing to do), but I believe that on certain grounds you get spread betting odd being displayed on the digital advertising hoardings. West Ham is one I can think of off the top of my head. So how does that differ?

    Getting back on topic dedicated sports channels are something much more common in the US for whatever reason although I beleive NBA TV is available quite widely in some parts of Europe although of course not in the UK.
  • big brother 9big brother 9 Posts: 18,153
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    #14
    Its difficult realky as the cost of alot if sports are far too expensive to allocate one sports on a channel that wouldnt get greay viewing figures
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