BT Sports Channel (Part 2)

104 of 345

Sirius

09-11-2013

I wonder if BT would be allowed to package the free games as "BT Sport on x" with a broadcast partner using their studio, their panel and their commentators.

STV for example use BT analysts when they deviate from ITV coverage introducing them as "BT Sport's (name)".

centuryporter

09-11-2013

Be prepared to start paying for BT sports very soon..... As I am a BT broadband subscriber they were charging me for their channels when it should have been free...

TH14

09-11-2013

I have both BT and Sky but find Sky far superior. Everything from the pundits to the presentation is so much better on Sky. I'm a BT Broadband customer but expect to start having to pay subs soon although maybe BB customers will get a small discount, who knows? I don't think this is good news at all and the football is the staple for Sky and to start losing some of the main competitions is disastrous

Ragnarok

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by centuryporter:
“ Be prepared to start paying for BT sports very soon..... As I am a BT broadband subscriber they were charging me for their channels when it should have been free...”

Same here, however they did sort it out but it took alot of playing around, and phone calls.

The billing system is now very flexible.

PS. If you need to call them call bang on 8am and you get straight through to a human being.

JSemple3

09-11-2013

I had doubts to be honest about BT being a serious player in the sports field (still thought it was too ESPN/Setanta) Now it pretty obvious they mean serious business

Ragnarok

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by JSemple3:
“I had doubts to be honest about BT being a serious player in the sports field (still thought it was too ESPN/Setanta) Now it pretty obvious they mean serious business”

Indeed, a big show of intent.

Shame in many ways, I'll miss Sky build up. I usually only tune into BT sport for the main events so far. Even during the coverage over use of that mini box look at players managers, annoys me alot.

Steve9214

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by mlt11:
“BT Sport:
Man City v Hull - 303,000
Man City v Everton - 377,000

[
(***) Worth just focussing on those Man City ratings for a minute:

- Last season, as reigning PL champions, Man City provided ESPN with all of its 3 lowest ratings of the season up to this point .

- This season, Man City provide BT Sport with their 2nd and 3rd lowest ratings of the season up to this point.”

BUT - remember no-one in Hull can get BT Broadband - so there would no Hull ratings for the Man City game,
Unless Hull City fans are that gullible they take out a SKY BT Sport subscription for one game so far this season.
Would be cheaper to actually go to the away game than pay for BT for a year.

Explains the 50-60 K less viewers than the other City games on BT quoted above

JSemple3

09-11-2013

ALL UK rights! That is massive!

Jokanovic

09-11-2013

Think its great news. I find SKY can sometimes be very smug.
Its a real kick up their arse and delighted.

Hup_73

09-11-2013

Holy crap! This is massive!!!!!

Jokanovic

09-11-2013

Wish I was back in UK to see the faces on the SSN presenters just now and the Soccer Saturday crowd.

bluesdiamond

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by Jokanovic:
“Wish I was back in UK to see the faces on the SSN presenters just now and the Soccer Saturday crowd. ”

Tim Lovejoy is happy on BT Sports

arunan22

09-11-2013

BT say every English team will be shown free at least once - surely to guarantee that - must mean 1 game per week is shown free?

NeilVW

09-11-2013

BT Sport announce the news on their website:

Quote:
“BT Sport wins all live UK TV rights to Champions League and Europa League
BT Sport announce the acquisition of exclusive live rights to all 350 matches a season for three years from 2015/16. Both finals to be free on BT Sport, as well as top matches from earlier rounds.

BT Sport will be the new UK home of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League football, following a tender process in which BT won the exclusive live broadcast rights to all 350 matches from both tournaments. The rights run for three seasons from 2015/16.”

Spoiler

This is the first time a single UK broadcaster has won the exclusive live rights to all matches from both tournaments. The hundreds of additional top tier matches will boost BT Sport and make it the natural home for football fans who wish to see the very best European sides pitted against each other.

BT has shaken up the UK TV market with BT Sport and it today pledged to make its new matches far more accessible and affordable for fans who wish to enjoy all the action. It also announced it will show a selection of these new matches for free on BT Sport, even to homes that have not signed up to the channels.

The finals of each tournament will be showcased in this fashion along with a selection of top matches from earlier rounds. Fans will also be delighted to know that each participating British team will feature for free at least once each season.

BT Sport already boasts a very strong line-up of live sport coverage from Fridays to Sundays and the new mid-week games will ensure the channels are even stronger, with fantastic live football being broadcast regularly throughout the week.

Gavin Patterson, BT chief executive, said today: "I am thrilled that BT Sport will be the only place where fans can enjoy all the live action from the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. Both tournaments are world class and firm favourites with many. The live rights will give a major boost to BT Sport and give people yet another reason to take our terrific service.”

"BT Sport has got off to a strong start with customers enjoying what we have to offer. We have attracted millions of customers by giving sport back to the fans, and we can assure people who want to catch all the action, that European football will be far more accessible and affordable with BT.”

Commenting on the award of rights, Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA Events SA Marketing Director, said: “UEFA is delighted to welcome newcomer BT Sport to the family of UEFA Champions League rights holders. Since its launch in the summer, BT Sport has been UEFA’s partner for the UEFA Europa League and has demonstrated its ability to deliver premium sports coverage. We look forward to working with BT Sport on both competitions in the 2015-18 rights cycle.”

The UEFA Champions League, which features the top Barclays Premier League football teams, is an incredibly popular tournament with the total UK audience being around 30 million viewers on average in recent seasons . In addition to the top teams from England, Celtic have also featured, having qualified for the main stages of the tournament via earlier rounds.

The UEFA Europa League, which was won last season by Chelsea, currently features the fifth placed Barclays Premier League team as well as the winners of the FA Cup and League Cup. Teams that drop out of the UEFA Champions League group stages also feature in the tournament.

BT Sport is the UK's newest and most vibrant sports TV service, with three channels showing live top tier action from the Barclays Premier League and the Aviva Premiership as well as a host of other sport. BT has more than two million customers who take the service and the channels reach around four million homes when BT’s wholesale deal with Virgin Media is taken into account.

It is also the home for top European league football, showing regular live matches from Germany's Bundesliga, France's Ligue1 and Italy's Serie A. This means many of the stars who will feature in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League will already be familiar to BT Sport viewers.

BT Sport is free to BT Broadband customers in the UK, with live and catch-up programming available via BT TV, Sky and Virgin Media. Live and catch-up content is also available to BT broadband customers via BTSport.com and the BT Sport mobile and tablet apps.

http://sport.bt.com/sportfootball/fo...11363847946944

ariusuk

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by arunan22:
“BT say every English team will be shown free at least once - surely to guarantee that - must mean 1 game per week is shown free?”

It means they have to show eight free games a season:
Champions League final
Europa League final
Champios League qualifiers (one leg of English 4th team and one of Scottish champions)
3 x CL group games
1 x EL group game

mattw

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by arunan22:
“BT say every English team will be shown free at least once - surely to guarantee that - must mean 1 game per week is shown free?”

The press release actually talks about every British team, so potentially (with some good Scottish performances boosting co-efficients) you could end up with six teams needing to be shown at least once - which I think would then get to the one match per week during the group phase. (Just seen the above post, and take the point that BT may decide to count qualifiers as the "once per season" for teams in the qualifiers).

What's very unclear at the moment, is whether all this is tokenism - i.e. show potentially meaningless group games free, but keep more attractive group games and the knockout phase (barring final) for subscribers, or will the free / subscriber balance be more like it is now?

As an aside on something I'm not clear on, do we yet know the details of the BBC / BT FA Cup deal, as I don't recall anywhere seeing the split of which picks those broadcasters got in each round.
Last edited by mattw : 09-11-2013 at 10:52

Igloo_Man

09-11-2013

There an opportunity here for BT to make a real positive PR move by airing two games FTA every week, thus meaning there is actually an increase on the amount of FTA coverage. They wouldn't even need to be showing the first pick on both nights - if it were the second pick on one night and the third pick (ie. top non-British game) on the other night then it would serve as a good PR move without losing the carrot of both first picks behind the pay wall.

Can anyone clarify the FTA level of BT Sport? What is it's total reach?

And when will they likely start charging for BT Sport for broadband customers? Is there a chance that a charge could be coming this summer?

Jason C

09-11-2013

Bloody hell, I just channel-hopped to BT Sport for no more than 15 seconds and even in that short time the smugness emanating from Darrell Currie about the CL rights deal was overpowering.

Goodness knows what it must have been like on BT Sports Panel earlier on; were Lovejoy and his guests sipping from champagne glasses as the show went on?

Jeffmister

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by Jason C:
“Bloody hell, I just channel-hopped to BT Sport for no more than 15 seconds and even in that short time the smugness emanating from Darrell Currie about the CL rights deal was overpowering.

Goodness knows what it must have been like on BT Sports Panel earlier on; were Lovejoy and his guests sipping from champagne glasses as the show went on?”

What else were you expecting - Currie to announce the news being disappointed that the channel has picked up a significant amount of matches?

Igloo_Man

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by Jason C:
“Goodness knows what it must have been like on BT Sports Panel earlier on; were Lovejoy and his guests sipping from champagne glasses as the show went on?”

They were actually sipping from wine glasses!

Jason C

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by Jeffmister:
“What else were you expecting - Currie to announce the news being disappointed that the channel has picked up a significant amount of matches?”

Of course not, but they could've announced the news in a discreet and dignified way rather than ramming it down people's throats at every opportunity in the manner of someone who's just found out they've won the Lottery.

Hup_73

09-11-2013

They were excited, as they have every right to be, but it was definitely in proportion (the wine tasting was unrelated!).

By the way Sky tries to make out that every game on super Sunday is the greatest sporting event ever, if it was them making the announcement they would have probably had fireworks!!!!

ahoymeister

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by Jokanovic:
“Think its great news. I find SKY can sometimes be very smug.
Its a real kick up their arse and delighted.”

BT Sport, in the shape of Mr Jake Humphrey, has taken smug to previously unparalleled heights. At least today they have something to be smug about, and well done to them for that. However, I hope they improve their presentation considerably between now and then as I've found it bordering on the unwatchable so far.

Odd how Champions League rights can be sold to a single bidder yet the same cannot be done for the Premier League.

Hup_73

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by Igloo_Man:
“Can anyone clarify the FTA level of BT Sport? What is it's total reach?

And when will they likely start charging for BT Sport for broadband customers? Is there a chance that a charge could be coming this summer?”

The can show FTA vis Freeview, Virgin and Sky (not sure about Freesat), so it's pretty much across the board.

I think BT only have to put a down payment now, and the bulk of the payments don't start till 2015. I think they'll stay free for BT broadband customers to build up subscriptions until 2015, I wouldn't be surprised if a small fee comes in then though, maybe bundled in with HD (esp if they retain Premier league rights)

Dancc

09-11-2013

Originally Posted by TH14:
“I have both BT and Sky but find Sky far superior. Everything from the pundits to the presentation is so much better on Sky. I'm a BT Broadband customer but expect to start having to pay subs soon although maybe BB customers will get a small discount, who knows? I don't think this is good news at all and the football is the staple for Sky and to start losing some of the main competitions is disastrous”

To be fair, you'd expect that to be the case. Sky have had many years to get their presentation right, whereas BT have had literally a couple of months. BT's presentation can only improve with time, and they have a very ample supply of that between now and their CL rights kicking in. And at least they have state of the art studios and facilities to work with.

Needless to say I won't be joining you in shedding any tears over this news. Whilst they may have successfully convinced a gullible few that they are the best thing since sliced bread, Sky had become disturbingly dominant and complacency has crept in. Some of their pricing is also outrageous and basically daylight robbery (i.e. £9.99 for one day of Sky Sports access via "Now TV"). Time to let someone else have a go. I'd also like to see a shakeup in the pay TV movies sector as I don't feel the virtual monopoly which Sky have here is healthy either.

104 of 345