BT CL ratings:

Arsenal v Bayern - 758,000
CSKA v Man Utd - 508,000

Other games not in daily top 10s.

Excellent rating for the Arsenal game - the first really strong BT CL rating for a game not featuring Man Utd - not surprising given the quality of the game - but still good to see it.

EDIT: casinoman beat me by 4 minutes!

BT will be really hoping for some mouth watering clashes in the knockout stages if those figures are anything to go by.

Man Utd/Arsenal v Barcelona/Real Madrid just a few examples.

As a non BT subscriber, the Arsenal V Bayern game was the first time I felt that I had 'missed out,' so I may be a bit biased here but was rating for Arsenal that good?

Man Utd V Wolfsburg achieved a higher rating, albeit slightly higher.

I know that there is a very large Man Utd audience, but Arsenal V Bayern should surely rate similar to Man Utd V Wolfsburg?

On a wider point, where the gain to BT is big in terms of CL is that I think quite a few people will only watch one CL game a week.

Previously ITV was probably enough, so BT to get additional sign ups probably needed both nights (I appreciate wider broadband debate)

Arsenal V Olympiakos was around 420k. They probably took quite a few people from Chelsea game (Kiev V Chelsea weaker than Porto V Chelsea)

Man Utd game down 300k a day later, suggests that one match per week is what a considerable number watch

I appreciate the very basic calculation above.

The BT results will be very interesting.

I cant work out how the split of BT Sport Europe subscribers, or even the numbers and the additional income BT will derive.

Yes - all good points as always - re Ars/Bay rating being "good" - really just a question of language - as you say it absolutely should be rating at that level given the game quality.

Also note there are only 15 min intros on the main games which will be providing uplift vs more "normal" programme length.

CSKA/MU rating in line with PSV/MU - the MU/Wolfsburg rating was very significantly higher - no obvious reason - extra 30 mins intro on PSV only explains a bit re that game only - but only a bit.

Re financials - Sky results were out yesterday - very strong indeed - customer growth up and churn down - strongly implies no effect at all from losing the CL - however very early days - end of the quarter only coincided with MD2 - any effect likely to be like "turning round oil tanker" - ie takes very long time to filter through - customers take long time to digest and then to take decisions. Sky results:

https://corporate.sky.com/documents/...%20release.pdf

BT results next week - Sky no adverse effect doesn't mean we won't see a positive effect in BT results - not a zero sum game - as previously discussed!

You may be interested to know that the latest BT Sport Fan Forum survey has been sent out, and this time they're asking about what additional products, features or services BT Sport can introduce - quite literally, as they just put the question up above an empty box you could type anything into.

They then outlined five specific concepts with opinion questions, namely:
- An HD version of the existing BT Sport app
- An app on PS4/Xbox One
- An app for Smart TV/Apple TV
- An online/app-only subscription to BT Sport requiring no TV subscription or broadband tie-up
- Live pay-per-view boxing.

I found the latter two the most revealing of BT's future intentions, particularly the pay-per-view; does that signal an intent to go after Sky's existing deals with boxing promoters or strengthen their links with BoxNation?

My survey was a little different then - I wasn't offered the fourth option from your list.

If they bring out a smart TV app at no extra charge, I'd probably cancel my second box sub.

I was surprised they gave me the PS4/Xbox One option as I told them beforehand I had neither.

Would be good if someone could provide the peaks for Arsenal v Bayern and the United games.

As many have said, this was the first "'marquee" game that BT have had in the CL and a 760k average is pretty good given it was competing with a Chelsea game.

Wouldn't be surprised if a English knockout game easily breaks the 1m mark - assuming an English team gets there!

Yep as I said before a potential game between Man Utd v Barcelona would easily break that mark, I can also think of a few other's that would as well.

Sky only have a deal with one boxing promoter - Matchroom - and they have just signed a new 5 year exclusive deal.

Why do BT persist with another set on commentators for the UHD game? They are watching the same game as the other commentators.
Sky did this when they went 3D and it made the channel feel cheap.

Good to see the UHD cameras at the Emirates at normal height and distance.

The reasons for this have been done to a death - they might be watching the same game, but they're not watching the same pictures.

It would be very jarring for the UHD channel to show a replay from one angle while the commentators talk over a replay from the main coverage.

Because the coverage is different, with different replays etc.

If you tried to overlay the HD commentary on the UHD feed you'd have occasions where they were talking about something you weren't seeing.

One crazy thing about the UHD channel, is that, you are getting the best of the best in picture quality, yet you aren't getting the best of the BT commentators to go along with the pictures.

Not sure what else you could do, but take the Arsenal v Bayern Munich game on Tuesday night.

BT Sport Europe had Ian Darke and Owen Hargreaves and the BT Sport Ultra HD channel had Paul Dempsey and Trevor Francis.

Now without being unkind, Ian Darke is by far a better commentator than Paul Dempsey, yet Paul Dempsey is on the so called Superior channel.

I wonder how long it will take for there to be a change in roles, and the BT Sport Ultra channel to be classed as the main BT Sport channel!!

As I understand it, BT are developing (or helping to develop) technology that allows the HD channel to "zoom in" the UHD picture, meaning only one production and hence one set of commentators.

BT perhaps unsurprisingly using BT Sport Europe for their Champions Cup rugby coverage.

I often wonder what is the first thing they consider when thinking about streaming devices. Apple TV/Smart TV always seems to be at the top of the list whereas many now are using Roku, Chrome and Amazon Fire. My frustration with streaming is that different broadcasters appear on different platforms. To maximise revenue surely they should be working on making apps availble on all devices. An example, I have an Amazon Fire TV, I chose it because of speed and the number of apps and the ease of sideloading Kodi. Since I have had it, Emby have introduced a very good app which has been updated several times and works really well and I use this almost as much as Kodi. Streaming should be about convenience and accesibility.

I wasn't offered that option either, but got the other options.

I didn't like the talk of an extra subscription for the console apps as I think one price should cover access anywhere. Also while I like the sound of a HD version of the app, aren't the streams already 720p? Presumably they're going to bump them up to 1080p or increase the bitrate?

Yes the apps and BTSport.com are 720p
Offering 1080p would be ace i have to say

PPV boxing im good with, so long as there is no ad breaks like Sky have the gall to do!

Is this just for round 1 when there are no European Football games due to the international break?

It will be interesting what happens when there is European Football and European Rugby on at the same time, which will be on Europe?

Confirmed so far, yes.

I have a feeling they want to keep the rugby away from the Lite package, so they may well use Europe where possible (so definitely 3pm and any other time that it doesn't clash with major football), but move the rugby where the football is more appealing.

I 've just received my copy of the Fan Forum Survey this morning. One of the 4 options offered to me was the ability to use 3 concurrent logins per subscription for the app/online for a small additional fee.

As I only use the app on the tablet or via Chromecast on the tv, I'd be interested in the full HD version for a modest extra charge.

BT Q2 Results out. I'll let others who know more do the legwork on analysis but this pasted in from The Register:


Edit, more from CEO:


Edit 2, from the slide deck produced for the Q2 earnings call:

- Ave Revenue per User (ARPU) up 7% (17% for broadband + TV)
- 82,000 broadband additions, 212,000 fibre additions
- 106,000 BT TV additions ("best ever" quarterly performance)

- BT Sport "average daily viewing" (??) up by 47%
- "majority" of customers taking the full range of channels (i.e. not downgrading to BT Sport Lite)
- Unique monthly visits to "relaunched" BT Sport app up 30%

http://www.btplc.com/Sharesandperfor...215-slides.pdf

Thanks.

In summary it looks like very good customer and revenue growth indeed. However the additional costs of CL are such that profits have fallen.

Anyone interested in detailed numbers look at slide 4 (5/11) "BT Consumer" (link below) where you get every number for the last 10 quarters - and can thus compare to the same quarter for the last 2 years.

The BT TV net additions number is outstanding - 106,000 isn't just the best ever - it's the best ever by miles. In the same quarter two years ago (ie launch of BT PL) they got 70,000. Same quarter last year was 38,000.

However there hasn't been any impact on BT's share of broadband net additions - which were 51% - very similar to previous quarters - see slide 7 (8/11) "Broadband". Remember that metric spiked following launch of BT PL. Also no impact on fibre additions - though they are at a high level anyway.

Broadband + TV (the total of the two) - revenue growth is 17% vs same quarter in prior year - by coincidence that is the identical rate of growth as in the same quarter last year and the same quarter 2 years ago. That's a very high rate of growth indeed and it has being sustained. However it looks like it needed CL to sustain it - revenue growth in the previous quarter (ie April to June 2015) was 7% vs prior year.

The downside is the bottom line - the additional costs of CL have outweighed the additional revenue with the result that profits have fallen. Most sensible to look at the EBITDA line (BT Sport will have little Capex) - EBITDA is down 10% vs same quarter in prior year (though it's higher than the same quarter 2 years ago - though that would have been depressed by substantial BT Sport launch costs).

Two big caveats:

1) It's very, early days - end of the quarter only coincided with CL MD2.

2) Don't know precisely how CL costs are being charged across the year - ie how much of the £299m CL rights cost has hit the P&L this quarter - it may not actually be that much.

So I think the next quarter's results will be more telling in terms of the ongoing effect on profits.

Slide 5/11 and 8/11:

http://www.btplc.com/Sharesandperfor.../q215-KPIs.pdf