BT Sport & The Champions League - What To Expect?
RedOrDead36
Posts: 1,629 Forum Member
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Feel sad it's leaving Sky. They do a very good job with their coverage. Love Souness, Neville etc.
I'm dreading BT's coverage. Have they confirmed red-button with multiscreen? Have they also confirmed Danny Baker and Owen Hargreaves won't be seen within 50 miles of their Champions League production?
Also any chance of a reduction in the Sky Sports subscription? It is afterall their 2nd main asset behind the EPL.
I'm dreading BT's coverage. Have they confirmed red-button with multiscreen? Have they also confirmed Danny Baker and Owen Hargreaves won't be seen within 50 miles of their Champions League production?
Also any chance of a reduction in the Sky Sports subscription? It is afterall their 2nd main asset behind the EPL.
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It's leaving Sky and ITV after this season
On a related note, my broadband price went up at the start of this month - the second time that my price has gone up after being promised by a BT customer service advisor that it wouldn't.
It's one group stage game from each British team that makes it to the group stage and the final that are to be shown free, so possibly 6 games (1 x 4 EPL teams + Celtic if they make it).
I am glad it is leaving Sky, hopefully BT can invest more and make those games behind the red button in HD. Sky keep saying they have the highest of sports channels yet we get 1 or only 2 games a match day in HD that's really poor in this day and age.
CL is the biggest club competition in the world and every single game should be shown in HD considering all games are produced in HD so no excuse for Sky's poor SD coverage.
Hope BT will show those games in HD as it should be, if they do, I will probably join BT.
1) Improve their soundmix qualities on offtubes (compare Sky at ground, Sky offtube and BT offtube sound mixes)
2) Comms/Co-Comms on ALL games. If they think about 'cheapening up' on that, negative move.
3) Whatever BT do, copy one thing on sky, that's the 10pm highlights show. 3-5 minute goals edit from every game with commentary, no voiceovers/beds/fancy shit or what have you. It's the best highlights show on TV, and I really fear about it.
On a personal level I currently get BT Sport 'free' as a subscriber to the Virgin Media XL package, I wonder if that will continue or if I'll be asked to pay for it/towards it in the future? Recently got a letter saying I'm going be charged just under a fiver more per month in the near future for my package, I don't want another one come next August.
I'm not massive on the BT EPL coverage, it's very BBC vanilla for me and aimed at the casual fan. Although I do like the 'on the pitch' presentation. That would be fun in some of the CL away ties
Apologies for straying into fantasy land here, but hopefully BT go for something similar to this (this is from their currently used presenters/commentators without any additions they might make):
Presenters
James Richardson
Darrell Currie
Lynsey Hipgrave
Pundits
Julien Laurens
Raphael Honigstein
James Horncastle
Andy Brassell
Jermaine Jenas
Gordon Strachan
Commentary Teams
Ian Darke & Jim Beglin (I know Gray is heavily rumoured to be being considered by BT but he hasn't been confirmed yet)
Peter Drury & Stewart Robson
Adam Summerton & Richard Hughes
Steve Bower & Adam Virgo
Jonathan Pearce & Tony Dorigo
They will need more pundits and certainly more commentary teams than that, but that's a start. Could all change depending on any additions they make.
i would say that cricket is a bigger asset to sky than champions league.
... and golf.
No chance.The Sky revenue model just doesn't work that way - what you can expect is a greater focus on retention deals and marketing.
So, no Derek Rae, Steve McManaman, Darren Fletcher or Michael Owen from their current team? I'm sure that they will all be involved.
I wonder if they are considering using Fletcher to do some of the presenting. He's not done any commentating on the Europa League so far(unless he does any tonight). Adam Summerton has been superb whenever I've heard him do any of the European League games.
I know that you are of the same mind as me regarding Michael Owen, so I won't go there. I hope that they sign Lee Dixon who's a great pundit and is also a useful co-comm.
Dixon is a good choice for another pundit, hopefully they manage to bring in Henry too as I thought he was very good at the World Cup.
I share your opinions on Rae and Owen. Let's just hope that Owen's moved over to a pundit role by then.
I wonder what they'll do with Jake Humphrey. He loves being pitch side, but I think it looks cheap to do the entire presentation from there, and liable to be affected by sprinklers, PA announcements etc. I would prefer them to use the BT Sport London studio with either Richardson, Hipgrave, Currie or Fletcher anchoring the coverage. They can then go over to whoever is pitch side for each game on that particular evening. That way we get the best ( and worst ) of both worlds.
Maybe in your head but not in reality. When English teams are involved more especially it trounces any Cricket viewing figures.
Golf? LOL
Sky's 2nd biggest non-football asset by viewing figure is actually the PDC darts!
It's at least one match from each British team.
i'm not a cricket fan, never watch it, but even i can see that cricket is a major asset for sky.
And is there an average of two four day darts tournaments with around 20 hours live coverage of each one every week? Over the year many more watch more golf than darts.
From Sky's recent financial statement
Weren't there three games in HD on Sky last night (Man City, Chelsea and Barca)? While it would be nice to have all eight matches in HD, I'm not sure how cost effective that would be. The percentage of Sky viewers in the UK more interested a match not involving one of the British teams than the two matches that do must be pretty small, and even then, it's not as though they can't watch the game. Just not in high def.
So long as BT match the breadth of Sky's coverage, and have at least two games live and in HD, and all the other matches available, that's all I'm concerned about.