And like most said Sky took it very badly indeed and tried to pull wool over everyone's eyes with not wanting to go any further even Sky would of offered a substantial increase after their first bid.

Second round of bids for the prem league maybe Sky's only saving grace.

Imagine in the next PL bidding round, either Sky or BT end up with just 38 games but have spent in excess of a £1billion in doing so!

If the PL is clever, they could structure such an outcome to maximize TV revenue.

And then, the Al Jazeera submarine surfaced.

The bubble is going to burst. This obsession with football rights cannot go any further

I feel most sorry for the people who can't handle the pub but can't afford to have it at home either, like I hate pubs and large crowds of people because I have ASD.

i feel most sorry for the people who can't handle a busy pub but can't afford to have it at home. I have ASD and can't handle large groups of people. For us going from FTA is a bad thing.

excuse ignorance what is asd and fta?

At the weekend Sky said they'd use the money saved from then Champions League on drama- I think Sky are committed to drama in the medium term at least.

I can see the F1 being put back on the sports channels as the F1 channel does seem overkill for the amount of hours broadcast. Nothing major sports wise will be dropped if imagine.

free to air, sorry

ASD is autism spectrum disorder

Highlights it looks like, I can't afford Sky after this season the only way I could afford it this season as they gave me 50% off.

Some matches including the final will be free to air on a channel owned by BT Sport. We don't know if there will be more or less free coverage than on ITV at the moment. So you might even be better off. Highlights are likely to be on ITV or BBC as well.

Also I think BT will look into giving free BT sports for Broadband users and also the fact you get it for free on Virgin Media's XL package

All indications though are that CL games will be charged for - quite possibly on a separate channel not covered by the Virgin or free BT Sport on BT Broadband deals. How much they will charge is unclear.

I'm hoping the BBC get then

Either way I think they will save costs by commentating in the studios rather then sending reporters out there.

BT could perhaps still do CL (or all Sports) "free" on, say, the top Infinity + phone + TV Entertainment packages. I wouldn't be surprised to see something like that, to get more people upgrading. They need to monetize all that fibre to the max. They may be able to offer even faster (and more pricey) FTTC as well as (even more pricey) FTTP On Demand by 2015 and I seem to recall reading somewhere about a projected 90% fibre penetration by then. G.Fast + FTTdp are going to be trialled next year, so who knows what speeds they could offer (and bump up the charges for!).

I personally think the CL is over rated.
All that operatic singing and sponsorship is a huge turn off for me.

The format could do with a bit of a trim too.

I am hoping for both Champions League and Europa League games for free, i don't think we will get much of any for free though.

BT bought the network off the government for a considerable figure, but the also inherited a load of regulations to go along with it such as they have to wholesale to other companies who can just start up from nowhere.
They also have to pay to maintain that network.
They didn't claim poverty at all; the government created the scheme and let companies tender for it. Both Fujitsu and BT tendered for the contract and Fujitsu pulled out. Leaving only bt willing to roll it out and then bank roll the rest themselves.
BT have surpassed Vms fibre reach now but have nowhere near the same level of take up and it is really hard to sell fibre to a majority customer base made of the older generation.

If it wasn't for BT this country would be left in the dark ages in terms of internet speed!

BT kept us in the dark ages for too long. If we got rid of them we would have had near 100% fibre years ago.

And they still have a farcical monopoly holding things back.

Who do you expect to have subsidised the roll out? The government certainly wouldn't have and all the cable companies got in major debt. Cable has been around over 20 years in this country and haven't been able to expand reach.

I hope I haven't killed this thread! It was very active yesterday!!

Maybe because it's gone completely off topic

Errr how stupid do Sky think their customers are?

I am paying for a sport channel and one of the main reason I am paying for is Champions League football.

Why would I care if they invest in drama or not when I want to watch Champions League football?

Sky need to wake up and smell the coffee that they are no longer the home of football and if they don't reduce the price accordingly I will drop it in shot and go for BT Sport providing;

BT sport covers Champions league so no add on channel or PPV, if BT do get greedy and try to charge extra for Champions League, then there is always online streams!

Strange as you might find it, not all of Sky's customers subscribe purely for football or for CL football at that. Only 3% of even Sky Sports viewing is of CL football. Work on the basis that the statement about drama wasn't for your benefit.

Surely if one of the main reasons you are paying Sky is for CL football you will go for BT Sport in 2015 irrespective of Sky's pricing - as they won't have any CL football.

BT paid £1bn to acquire the CL rights - are you seriously claiming that they are greedy if they try to recoup any of that through extra charges.

It is not just Sky who need to wake up and smell the coffee - you may want to try it yourself.

Strong words all round.