just show sky's champions league live coverage instead of itv/bbc

id say its gonna stay the same anyway...

no it isnt.

they said it was going to be at the start..

BBC for the Champion's League!

Per Sky's results announcement today:

The auction for the 2015/18 CL rights is expected this calendar year - ie by December 2013.

NB. An analyst said there were market rumours it would be soon and Darroch replied that he expected it to go to market early (ie earlier than previous rights cycles) and that he expected it to be this calendar year.

Further comments from Darroch re CL auction:

- no guidance re likely cost inflation
- we don't think of anything as being absolutist
- we ran PL successfully with less content when Setanta were around
- greater optionality re content
- lots of choices we can make
- Sky Sports customers want broad range of sports
- we look at it in terms of breadth and range that Sky Sports offers

All the above is obviously open to interpretation but possibly Darroch trying to get across the message that he doesn't regard CL (or as much CL as Sky currently has) as an absolutely must have.

NB. This is at 55 mins on the UK webcast if anyone wants to listen to exactly what he said. He wasn't speaking in full sentences - the above is my best effort at recording what was said. See link:

http://corporate.sky.com/investors/l...esults/q4_1213

Sounds like he is (sensibly) covering his back in case of BT trumping them for these rights. Fully expect them to go in hard for them (1st picks anyway)

The second leg of Celtic's third qualifying round tie against Elfsborg is live on BBC2 Scotland on August 7th. It's a 6.45pm kick-off. The first leg (at Celtic Park) doesn't look like it's going to be live on TV.

As for the CL bidding, I don't think BT would be that interested in securing anything other than first pick(s).

As has been said on the BT Sport Channel thread, the first picks are the only ones which are really valuable. The second picks don't go beyond the QFs and could potentially not feature any English clubs in the knockout rounds. The group stages don't tend to throw up many marquee fixtures, and certainly not for second pick selections, so unless BT are satisfied with being the secondary broadcaster (which they may be) only the first picks offer any value.

I'm almost certain that ITV will retain a first pick - it would be a dangerous move for UEFA to give all the rights to pay-TV.

Daily Mail man said it might go towards 1 billion.. from 400 million atm..

The £400m at the moment is over 3 years and it's a bit under that actually - it's a bit under £130m per year.

Benchmarks:
PL went up 70%
FL went up approx 50%
FA Cup went up approx 25%

So who knows what CL will do but for it to go up by 150% would be way, way out of line.

And unlike the PL it isn't an absolutely must, must have. Yes, it's very important but not a must have.

So much depends on UEFA doesn't it. Money wise I suspect the best deal they could do would be to give a day each to Sky and BT (or something along those lines). But maybe they think having FTA viewing is actually really important to them, and they are prepared to take a hit.

Assumption here is that Sky and BT would be happy sharing coverage like that, maybe the attraction comes from being the exclusive pay-tv home of CL football?

I would expect it would be at least that. I can see the scenario where none of the matches except the final is on FTA Tv. BT will either go for tuesday or wednesday first picks all out knowing ITV is vunerable rather than SKY who they know can afford a lot more than ITV.

Absolutely it does.

Don't forget all the supposed "experts" who spent years telling us that Sky was paying a large premium for exclusive live PL ..................... until Sky didn't have exclusive live PL and ....................... the price went up!

At the end of the day it's high quality content.

BT will want some of it as it would substantially increase the quality of its channel - making it much more attractive.

ITV will want to keep it as without it it would be down to very little high profile football.

Sky will want to keep it as it is important content.

I think it's very unlikely UEFA would award the lot (even excluding the final) to anyone.

Whether it will keep one 1st pick FTA we'll have to see - I would say it is very likely but nothing is certain.

If Sky and BT both ended up with one 1st pick I think they would both be very happy - as BT would have gained a lot and Sky wouldn't have lost anything (ignoring 2nd picks). I don't think the fact Sky would no longer be the exclusive Pay TV home of CL would matter in the slightest - far fewer would be able to watch on BT than ITV so Sky's 2nd pick game that night (if Sky retained it) would gain viewers.

Look at it this way - would Sky prefer BT had 38 live PL games or that ITV had 38 live PL games? They would prefer BT to have them as if they were on ITV a load of people would watch them for free and not bother with Sky (or any Pay TV sport).

Apart from the final would UEFA really care provided the cash is in extreme of what they are looking for to be on pay tv?

We all know that ITV SKY and BT will bid the earth for the rights and im sure it will all come down to the highest bids with loyalty out the window.

I hate to say this but there is every possibility that we could see coverage split between BT and Sky.

Personally I would love to see BT with ITV getting back more rights but I don't think SKY will give this up without a huge amount to spend on it and with that in mind if Sky did bid a fortune to keep BT out would they be in a strong position come the next PL rights?

I know we are 10 years on, but ITV Digital had extensive CL, and exclusive Football League and didn't fare too well.

Most years, if FTA gets first pick one night there are 4 really big games exclusive to pay, and then 8 or so middling matches. Really big (1 group stage, 1 Last 16, 1 QF, 1SF)

I'd expect Sky to bid hard, but as others have said, its not do or die.

I think UEFA do care, France is the only European country where at least one CL pick isn't shown FTA and the situation there has always been a bit different.

Of course, nothing can ever be written off but I'd be extremely surprised if everything went pay

The tender may not allow for this but if Sky and BT both massively outbid ITV for 1st picks I wonder if UEFA could go for some kind of halfway house - eg just give ITV 1st picks on one night from the knock-out stage only.

That would be 9 games - 4 last 16, 2 QFs, 2SFs + Final.

Probably unlikely - we've never seen anything like that before - but you never know - if the money is big enough anything could happen.

If I was UEFA I think that is the sort of compromise that would be worth considering.

Play-off round draw:

Dinamo Zagreb v Austria Vienna
Fenerbahce v ARSENAL
Ludogorets Razgrad v FC Basel
Lyon v Real Sociedad
Pacos Ferreira v Zenit St Petersburg
Plzen v Maribor
PSV Eindhoven v AC Milan
Schalke v Metalist Kharkiv
Shakhtyor Karaganda v CELTIC
Steaua Bucharest v Legia Warsaw

First legs to be played 20-21 August and second legs to be played 27-28 August. The days that matches are played on are still to be determined.

Arsenal's tie is probably the most attractive fixture. ITV will obviously show the Tuesday leg of it, and they will hope Celtic's match is on the other day so they can nab a leg of it too.

PSV-Milan is a strong tie too, and Lyon-Real Sociedad could be a good tie as well.

Do Sky show all of the matches ITV don't?

Yes, I believe that to be the case.

Tough draw for Arsenal :P

In contrast, should be a breeze for Celtic. Seems Celtic got out of mud beating Elfsborg and now they can breathe easier. Do Celtic have it easier than Arsenal because they were Champions?

Not quite - the ten non-champions are in a different section to the ten champions. Arsenal could never draw Celtic.

Furthermore, in each group there are 5 seeded teams, of which Celtic were one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013%E2...ampions_League

PSV v AC Milan is the most attractive tie from a purely footballing perspective.

Not seen final confirmation of it yet, but I'd expect Arsenal to be on Tuesday for the first leg, and Celtic to be on the Wednesday, obviously reversed in the second week.

I wonder what time Celtic's away match will kick off, with Karaganga being in Kazakhstan and a 5 hour time difference.