Need to bear in mind all those figures are programme averages which are often distorted by long intros - on Wed with a 6pm start the figure is effectively completely meaningless.

For big CL matches I would work on approx. 2m.

Until the Man C v Man U MNF in April 2012 the Chelsea v Liverpool CL semi final 2nd leg (the one that went to extra time) was Sky's highest ever club audience - it got 3.3m (match average or peak - I can't remember).

Well Sky got 1.9m people watching them at 11am - an exceptional audience for Sky at that time of day - probably the highest at that time of day in the entire history of Sky TV.

Ignoring the tone of your post, I will disagree with your point.

25,000 people travelled to the other side of the World to see the Lions, that's about the same as follow England in a football World Cup. Maybe up in Manchester people didn't care but down South they did. I was in a pub in Hampshire when the 1st Test was on and it and all the other pubs were rammed, and I watched the 2nd Test whilst in Kent and the same thing was true down there.

I'm not a Union fan, I'm from the North West and follow Rugby League, but I was very aware of the Lions tour and people certainly did care about it in various parts of the country.

I said this would happen and my opinion was rubbished. Many said I was an idiot for suggesting it and at best, BT Would maybe get shared rights with sky.
Glad to be proved right for a change!

This certainly signals BT's intention to go all out for the Epl.
The CL is a significant coup for BT and a huge loss to Sky.
People can try and dress it down but it is what it is.

First BT was the first broadcaster other than sky to get first picks on the epl.
Then sky lost all premiership rugby to bt now they've lost ALL of the CL.
Bt mean business.
I think BT will atleast get the same level of picks as sky next time round.

Seems 3-0 to BT to me. Apart from maybe the England games.
It's quite amazing to considering the channel has been launched a few short months.

Last season Real Madrid v Man Utd got 9m on Itv. ON Sky Sports the other leg between those two teams got 2m.

Given that BT Sport has way less customers than Sky, even in 2016 it will still have less, these massive CL games will be getting just 1.5million viewers. It is going to completely cut off the casual audience from watching the CL. There will be a demand for highlights at 10pm.

You can say that again. I and my bro switch on 5 minutes or less before the start and switch off usually within 15 minutes of the end. Cuts out all the talking faces dross. The actual match averages and peak are more meaningful than programme averages.

Point accepted, fair enough. But, the point I made still holds in that I would be surprised if BT topped 1 million for anything other than a huge, huge game in the QF or SF involving probably United or Liverpool (if they are back in it at any stage).

Absolute nonsense.

Sky must now go all out for the EPL rights, but BT will know this and will also bid highly. I don't think there has ever been a more significant change in the UK sports broadcasting market

Agree entirely.

One reason CL ratings get depressed is that CL is up against "general entertainment" on BBC1 / ITV1 which the PL doesn't face.

It's an important point - most people live in families - in most families the whole family doesn't want to watch football.

OK, I know there is Multiroom / SkyGo etc but the family exerts influence - particularly when we are talking about middling CL group games.

I think it's because BT have highlight rights included as part of their package, the second broadcaster that gets the highlights-only package won't have them exclusively, so they've coined this term co-exclusive.


The BBC may not be able to appease the UCL sponsors in the same way a commercial FTA channel would. They probably couldn't include them in the title sequence for example.


Wouldn't it have been a "closed-bid" process rather than auction-style? Otherwise BT would have paid just a little more than Sky/ITV were willing to, rather than a lot more.

What about Match choice? Will BT Sport have this option the way Sky do?

Makes it even more important for BT to sort out a Multiroom deal in time for the CL deal.

That would mean wholesaling to Sky, which BT simply won't do.

I do think there has been a bit of exaggeration in this thread about the potential negative effect on Sky and it's the Premiership that'll be the crucial battle. I have no doubt that come Monday morning, Sky executives will be planning their long term EPL rights strategy and be putting aside the requisite reserves for that contest. Ultimately, the Sky and BT customers will pay for these contests not only through raised subscriptions but in more subtle ways such as increased landline and broadband charges and fewer add-on benefits.


Yep, there will be noticeably fewer European matches being shown free to air and I strongly suspect that BT will probably act like Ebenezer Scrooge and show only the bare minimum requirements free to air*.

I really don't want piracy and poor quality online streaming to be the winner here and so I'd like to see much more government intervention starting with a new listed sports review that would put more sports events and tournaments on the protected schedule. I hope that would also serve in the longer term to help to halt this hideous sports rights cost inflation which ultimately neither benefits the free to air nor pay-TV viewers.

Unfortunately, the current ruling coalition still appears to be mesmerised by Murdoch (notwithstanding all the scandals) so we'll probably have to wait until post-2015 to get such a review.

* see below:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...#ixzz2kASxU2nX

Today's news is a fundamental marker in the sand. With the 38 EPL games and 18 first picks, at that point we didn't know if BT would say right this little package is enough to prop up our Broadband, and then just sit tight. Capturing the whole Euro rights has said we're in this for the long game. At the next set of EPL rights Sky will protect their 4:00 Sunday kick-off with a vengeance bidding way over the odds to hold on to them, but will then probably let BT steal the 1:30 Sunday slot. BT's next requirement must be to strengthen their Sunday UK offering. Saturday and Monday will most likely be split between the two also. A major change has already happened.

It's all very well BT acquiring all these rights but seriously how are they planning on paying for it. Obviously somebody somewhere at BT has it all worked out.

I can not see Sky giving ground in any way - I think they'll pay massive, and I mean massive, to not only keep what they have, but try to lock BT out entirely. If UEFA can't ignore this bid, why would the PL be any less greedy?

Not too relevant but just to say for knockout matches I think Sky's Wednesday coverage might start at 7pm rather than 6? (I know they start the final from 6 but I think that might be it?)

Thanks for your reply regarding the highlights as for the above it's just another reason why the currant BBC
setup needs to change to allow advertising if the highlights are left to ITV they will more than likely only bid
for night 1 maybe CH5 would be the best bet for night 2

That's what puzzles me why take it off FTA TV and lose all these viewers? Not everybody can afford pay tv and they are cutting off many viewers.

I can't see the PL allowing BT (or Sky) to be locked out entirely. It's massively in their interest to keep these two involved and bidding against each other for many auctions to come.

Well maybe the fact they've managed to get over double the price for the rights than they did last time
might have something to do with it

Its not going to be good for the consumer long term either. Sky aren't going to drop their 'base' charge just as BT won't drop their 'base' charge to get it via their platforms.

And BT's price is only going to have to rise, they are overpaying for all their content and they can't persuade that many people to subscribe when giving it away free and with EPL rights. CL is less of a draw.

By you 2015 we will be paying over £50 a month just in Sports subs just to get all the Top level football and we could end up with sports sub reaching the levels they are in the US

Its the same situation we see with the TV/Movie streaming services where none of them will drop prices, prices aren't going down but you need to subscribe to them all to get all content


HD isn't free now. Only those who subscribed before August got HD free and that's only for a year. I believe its £3 extra for HD at the moment.

Judging from the comments right here, some of the economising that is taking place is at the customer support and services end of things with decidedly unfortunate results.