I think BT will go after the England rugby Union Autumn internationals TV rights which Sky has until 2015

Dream on with that wish. The more you offer FTA the less reason to subscribe to BT Sport whether directly or through a Broadband deal. There will be no more FTA than they have to show and it highly likely to be the least appealing game of the week.

£300m a year. Geez!

BT only bid for the CL rights out of absolute sheer necessity. Without them their offering was looking severely limited - 1 EPL game 38 weeks a year and a few FA Cup games on non EPL weekends. The chance to get these rights wouldn't come around for another 5 years. I think they have massively overpaid as a result and that many of the people cheering them on today will be squealing in two years when they see what it is going to cost. We will see.

Whether they will bid for anything else and what they will pay will, I hope, be based on a more realistic cost v return calculation. Not sure the autumn internationals offers them a lot in that regard.

remember, this isn't until 2015 a lot can change in 2 years

Yeah I know that but BT Wouldn't bid for european football the way they have if they had no intention of sticking around. OK I admit european football is only part of things. The next premier league bids will be a clear indicator of the future if they intend to bid again or not

Somewhere on this thread mlt11 had estimated how many new BB customers BT would need just to break even on the PL deal.

God knows what that number will be now!!

They can only charge what the market will bear, even if that dents their profits.

How much will it cost to watch Football in 2015?

Sky Sports is now is approx £30 + £20 + £10 for HD, May go up by £5 by then
BT sport is £12+ £3 for HD.

With an extra charge for Champions league....

Who knows £100 to see all football?

Jake Humphrey, Tim Lovejoy and Matt Dawson positively glowing at the fantastic news for BT Sport.

Tim Lovejoy "We do have an announcement to make, its a very exciting announcement, this is really good for us, i think your all like this. The announcement is BT wins all live UK TV rights to the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. Thats exclusive live rights, how amazing is that. - Jake Humphrey and Matt Dawson can then be heard in background gasping with glee

Matt Dawson "Get in there, thats fantastic"

Jake Humphrey " Its huge news, amazing!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMG1njElnYA

Love the comments under the video.

Interesting that BT have let slip they won't be charging for PL but will for CL. So the main bulk of BT will still be free in 2 years time

This is a very very significant development. We are talking here not just of getting rights, but getting total exclusivity for the biggest club football competition in the world. Amazing well done BT

I am purely a layman when it comes to this kind of thing, but I do have business experience and purchasing experience in business. Sky have 20+ years experience in negotiating and evaluating TV sports rights. BT have around 18 months. I would suggest that the Sky evaluation of these rights is closer to the mark and that BT have significantly overpaid for them. It will be very interesting to see how this progresses, but I would suggest that BT won't be able to keep paying these sums for rights and offer their product at what seems like a cheap rate compared to Sky.

I don't get it. Is the CL really going to be PPV? Don't even know if they can do that effectively on satellite. I watch CL games sometimes (clashes with other activities usually) because I have Sky Sports anyway but if it was PPV I don't think I'd bother.

Notice the plural. Not just group games + final FTA then?

Unlikely to be PPV, more probable is a higher tier of subscription: an extra £x per month to watch CL/EL.

Yes BT are having to do that probably because they paid so much for the rights and the consumer end up paying more for the Champions League, on top of paying for watching the Premier League on Sky and BT. How is that good for the sports subscribers who like football, when you hav'nt had to pay extra for the Champions League on top of the Premier League before? It will be very interesting to see how this paves out for BT.
Ian.

It's a disaster. It seems Sky with millions more subscribers knew where to draw the line.

Now BT, have on paper, vastly overpaid and are even making the lesser Europa League, which has been a mutichannel FTA event into a premium plus event.

On the subject of the Europa League, it's actually a really cunning move by BT to snap these up. At the moment it's a bit of a poisoned chalice with clubs not really taking it seriously, and playing under strength sides.

However, from 2015 the winner gets a champions league slot - suddenly it becomes a very attractive proposition and clubs will start taking it really seriously!

But will the sports customer be willing to pay extra for just the Champions League and Europa League and most of the matches don't involve UK teams and what happens if the UK teams are knocked out early from those two tournaments? I do have both Sky Sports and BT Sport, but I doubt I would pay extra for those two tournaments, when at present I dont have to pay extra for those tournaments on top of having Sky Sports and BT Sport.
Ian.

Will we ever know how the breakdown is between Ch League and Europa League? I know the Europa is peanuts in comparison but intresting to see what they paid none the less.

I think talk of how BT will price this up is premature, no matter what whisperings people think are coming out of BT Towers. We had all this speculation before they launched their PL service on BT Sport, then they offered it free with BT Broadband and we all said "oh.. I didn't expect that!" (At least I did! )

Essentially they are in this game to protect (and grow) their broadband business so you can guarantee that whatever proposition they come up with, it'll be very attractive to customers who have (or sign up to) BT broadband.

But I can see even if you have BT Broadband your still going to have to pay more. It's already been hinted by BT Sport that the sports TV customer is going to have to pay more to watch these two tournaments, apart from the odd match being broadcast free to satisfy UEFA.
Ian.

I completely agree that's how it looks - I'm just saying that it wouldn't surprise me if they had something up their sleeves. Maybe they'll be a small charge for BT Broadband customers, but it'll be free to BT triple play customers (TV/phone/broadband).

Who knows! I'd say let's wait and see but we all know that it's the endless speculation that makes these boards so much fun!

Whilst I've acknowledged their qualities as a business over the years on the forum, as a Sky customer I have some sympathy with your view.

I've found Sky's customer service woeful of late and it's really left me feeling that my custom isn't of any great concern to them (note- this has nothing to do with "deals"!)

The competitive landscape has been quite comfortable for Sky, and I don't think their customer care has adjusted to the fact that some of their customers are seeing significant extensions of choice for the first time, and that they need to be proactive and efficient in sorting problems if/when they arise.

For me, access to Sky Sports channels is the only "challenge" remaining that would stop me from severing being a (direct) Sky customer, and even then I have an option if "pushed".

So, whilst I take Sky Sports and BT Sport at present, I am pleased to see BT Sport developing in to a genuine alternative to Sky Sports.