Eurosport: Has it got a future ?
WhoAteMeDinner
Posts: 4,612 Forum Member
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In the summer, Discovery Communications Inc, the holding company for all the Discovery reality TV channels, exercised its buy option on a majority stake in Eurosport off TF1 in France.
Over the last couple of years with the uncertainty over ownership, Eurosport has lost a tonne of live sport, almost all live tennis outside the three slams, excl Wimbledon, as well as all MotoGP classes.
Now I read that the new executive sent over from the US to run Eurosport is talking about buying "national" sporting rights of high calibre, mentioning a possible Premier League football rights bid.
That worries me, anyone who has previously tried to compete with Sky has simply blown several hundred million pounds on a small package of live games and then failed to get enough subscribers to pay for it: ESPN, Setanta.
What do you think, is Eurosport heading for the TV channel scrapheap with this new strategy, departing from the pan-European broadcast model that defined it ?
Over the last couple of years with the uncertainty over ownership, Eurosport has lost a tonne of live sport, almost all live tennis outside the three slams, excl Wimbledon, as well as all MotoGP classes.
Now I read that the new executive sent over from the US to run Eurosport is talking about buying "national" sporting rights of high calibre, mentioning a possible Premier League football rights bid.
That worries me, anyone who has previously tried to compete with Sky has simply blown several hundred million pounds on a small package of live games and then failed to get enough subscribers to pay for it: ESPN, Setanta.
What do you think, is Eurosport heading for the TV channel scrapheap with this new strategy, departing from the pan-European broadcast model that defined it ?
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I also think Eurosport has suffered in the way that ITV Sport has - it's been caught in the larger battle between Sky and BT but its business model does not make it viable to match their bids.
If they do, they will just get burned badly, spending maybe 300 million pounds for a game a week. Look at BT, they have spent over a billion pounds on sports rights to date and are not charging the vast majority of BT Sport viewers for a second year.
Eurosport are clearly stuck in the middle of Sky and BT's 'Sports Wars' - I have no idea how their business model works, providing two non-sub HD channels which show only minor sports rights doesn't sound like a winner to me.
They have the Davis Cup, The Aussie Open tennis all to themselves. They also show a lot of snooker
There are other Sports other than Football
French Open, BDO darts, Speedway, Bowls.... theres still alot of sport out there for them
There are a lot of examples of these "opt outs" (French Eurosport show Ligue 2 but I can't see British Eurosport trying to take the Football League rights in the UK) because these days it's not easy to find exclusive pan-European sports rights so I could see greater divergence starting to happen with Eurosport over the coming years.
I agree with this, and other posters with this statement. For instance, Eurosport shows a lot of Women's Football, so why not put in a bid to show the Women's Super League rather than the Frauen Bundesliga so there's no 'disconnect' between the teams playing and the audience.
And for once, I'd love it for Eurosport to stop buying live/packaged rights where all you'd get during the week is endless repeats of it (eg - 'NFL round up' is on every day) where Live coverage could be placed instead.
I'm the same, although their cycling coverage in the summer is very good.
They also show a lot of darts these days - I wish they'd focus on overseas PDC events rather than the second-rate BDO stuff, but it's there anyway.
Eurosport and ITV will continue to thrive because there remain a number of sport governing bodies and event sponsors who value the exposure free-to-air broadcasters offer over pay TV. There's a balance to be struck.
As a cycling fan, it's the station I watch most. No idea what their figures are but there's a race (or even 3) on most days between March and September with each event getting numerous repeats then in the 6 months inbetween it's winter sports galore.
To cater for those without pay TV they have their own online subscription service called Eurosport Player. £3.99 pcm.
Long live Eurosport!
but most times they are severely lacking in showing different sports ..... the last months or so it's all tennis and cycling!
they desparately need a third main channel too ..... even streams would be better
Surely Eurosport is part of a subscription package?
My gripes with the channel would be:
1. Poor commentary (Calrlton Kirby is terrible as the 'play by play' man).
2. Unpredictable timings (one out of four of my recordings of the Tour of Beijing actually showed the finish even though i picked showings schedules after non-live content).
3. Need a third channel/stream (French Open on two channels means we miss an important cycling race every year).
Yeah it is, its part of Sky News and Events I believe.
They do have a third and more streams - but you have to subscribe to Eurosport Player for that. For me the stuff they show in summer is of no interest, but great if you are into cycling, tennis and motorsports I suppose. Eurosport kicks in for me with the winter season - biathlon, ski-jumping and a certain sport requiring stones on ice. But even the latter has diminished lately and been shown on FTA web channels.
Stuff like volleyball and handball used to be shown quite a bit but is now mainly absent - laola1 free web-based TV does cover those, but it's getting frustrating trying to find Euro and World championships in those sports.
If the Curling Euros are on in November/December and March/April, I'll probably do a monthly web sub for 6 months.
But overall the channel seems to have gone downhill (pun intended) in the last 2 - 3 years. Needs a darned good shake-up.
It has a spontaneous and surprising feel to it sometimes as things show up that are not listed.
I love their coverage of lesser Football tournaments (Asian Games in the past), CONCACAF Gold Cup and a such.
I watch all 24 hours of Le Man on there and its great casual coverage. Just wish they did not switch it from BE to BE2 so often.
Futsal is also another sport that is not shown anywhere else.