Originally Posted by ariusuk:
“To confirm what Dan Roan tweeted, BT must show games free to air in both competitions as part of this deal.
We'll find out later this morning how many, but I'd expect at least the same number of free to air games as under the current contracts.”
Sympathies to you and your colleagues at ITV ariusuk. Must be seriously crushing losing these rights. Having seen what ITV put forward, the team tried their best to retain them, but moneybags UEFA went with BT.
Originally Posted by SamuelW:
“" ITV is proud to have been the UK free to air broadcaster of the Champions League, since it launched in 1992, and of the Europa League, but we were not prepared to pay over the odds in the latest live rights round.
"Viewers will be able to continue to watch both competitions free on ITV through to 2015 and we remain the home of live England football."
– An ITV spokesman comments on BT Sport's acquisition of UEFA rights.”
Nice bit of dignity being shown ITV on this. The main ITV channel will now have to reposition itself a bit, as it has to start attracting the audience that the CL would've got (male 16-34) with regular programming.
Originally Posted by eljmayes:
“At least BT have committed to showing some games FTA- if Sky had got the rights exclusively then I doubt they would have put anything FTA bar the final.
As has been mentioned earlier to appease the FTA audience BT could show a lesser game FTA every game week but I doubt that will happen.
The majority of the group stage match days will have a FTA game with the knockout stages being pay only (bar the final).
I fancy The Masters (all four days) will go to Sky as soon as the current deal is up. Anything that isn't on protected list and is FTA will likely be in Sky's sights now, the knock on connotations for all sports rights in the UK is massive after this announcement.”
I mentioned this last night. Wimbledon (excluding finals), Six Nations and The Open will all be in Sky's sights. Their main priorities at present will be retaining the rights to sports that run out soon (RFU contract, The Masters, US Open). Once these have been retained, the BBC better batten down the hatches, because Sky will be ruthless.
I did read that Sky were prepared to make an offer to UEFA to sub-licence some games to ITV as part of the deal.
Originally Posted by popeye13:
“Im amazed at some of the OTT comments and reaction on this thread since last night!
One kicking off because BT doesn't have a red button service in place for a right cycle that doesn't come into effect for another TWO YEARS!
Others saying its bad... How is it bad exactly? Its just dramatic comments for the sake of it in reality!
Im glad ITV have lost rights, got sick of their ever increasingly poor coverage, poor presenters, commentary and ad-breaks every 4 minutes.
Yes, BT is new to the game sorting its self out, ironing out some kinks, but given the choice of ITV or BT.. BT all day every day for me.
Sky... Sorry, but they had it coming. They have been doing this to broadcasters for years, they're on the receiving end of it now and im sure they're tearing hair out because this, no matter how you dress it up, is a loss of epic proportion!
UCL & UEL all in one place is a great move by UEFA.
Oh dear. . . .
Its not exactly top secret though so letting slip isn't really a bad thing”
As someone who can't afford pay-tv, the news is sad for me. Whilst ITV didn't get everything right, at least they showed the games. The BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 were never going to be able to afford (or justify) CL rights, which left ITV in a corner being backed up into by Sky and BT. There are millions of people in the same position as me, and growing up with the games on ITV through the late 90s/early 00s, this is poor. Many people are just as pissed off as I am right now.
I am fully aware that BT will show games FTA as part of this new deal. But position 3 (ITV) and position 57 (BT Sport Preview) in the EPG for Freeview are a country mile apart. That is the difference with this contract. There will be free games, but how many people will find and watch those free games remains to be seen.
One thing that probably happen is that Sky will challenge the European Commission's decision to split the Premier League rights between a minimum of 2 broadcasters. I would expect they challenge it, so that when the next contract comes up, they can go for 100% of the rights and cut BT off.