Eurosport and Discovery channels potentially being removed from Sky from 1st Feb

[GT49er]

They are all (or most of them) on my Virgin media package (which, to be honest, I'm looing to ditch) and I won't miss any of them.

 

[Silverhatch]

Discovery - owned by Liberty Media's John Malone who has just paid £8bn for Formula 1.
Sky F1 a flagship platform channel.
Virgin Media owned by John Malone ready to mop up the fallout from Sky.

Lawyers will be working late.

 

[Westdene Wonder]

No problem for me

 

[Cian]

Owners have enough cash and other outlets to weather this storm. Sky aren't as capable of holding to ransom as they once were, particularly not against John Malone.

Could see some of the channels going free to air rather than totally offline - which would keep them available on Sky and hurt BSkyB. Plenty of middle aged men who either have Sky mostly for Discovery content, or use it as the wedge to justify having Sky and Sky Sports to the missus

 

[Djmiles]

Sky Atlantic

Sky Atlantic

Sky Atlantic apparently!

 

[Wozza]

Could see some of the channels going free to air rather than totally offline - which would keep them available on Sky and hurt BSkyB.

They'd still need to pay Sky £££ to appear on the TV guide.

 

[clapham_gull]

Owners have enough cash and other outlets to weather this storm. Sky aren't as capable of holding to ransom as they once were, particularly not against John Malone.

Could see some of the channels going free to air rather than totally offline - which would keep them available on Sky and hurt BSkyB. Plenty of middle aged men who either have Sky mostly for Discovery content, or use it as the wedge to justify having Sky and Sky Sports to the missus

Looks to me like a few things.

Two companies having made zillions for sports rights looking to make money elsewhere. Discovery made quite a few redundancies a while back.

SKY like all broadcasters unwilling to invest money in linear television when viewing habits are changing. I'd imagine (well I suspect) Sky has probably the most sophisticated idea of what channels people are watching and why they subscribe to their channels.

And obviously John Malone and Rupert Murdock who are both very big competitors in the media world.

Although we quite obviously have an ageing population, the traditional media industry is very worried about not being able to target the difficult teenage to twenties market.

The worry is not so much what they aren't watching now but what they will be watching in ten years time. Is that generation lost for ever ?

 

[Prince Monolulu]

How WILL I cope?

 

[Badger]

Unwatchable. Although they have some decent shows, its just awash with wall-to-wall ad breaks. I just can't deal with that, not now there is Netflix and Kodi.

They're obviously trying to give you the authentic American TV viewing experience.

Opening scene
Ad break
Opening credits
Ad break
Another scene
Ad break
Build up of suspense
Ad break
Further build up of suspense
Ad break
Almost all all of the final scene
Ad break
Last few seconds followed by closing credits
Ad break

 

[Steve in Japan]

Reminds me of living in Asia in the 90's when, strange as it sounds, Discovery was a television highlight!

I don’t miss it. Except for the meerkats. And the monkeys.

 

[Easy 10]

They're obviously trying to give you the authentic American TV viewing experience.

Opening scene
Ad break
Opening credits
Ad break
Another scene
Ad break
Build up of suspense
Ad break
Further build up of suspense
Ad break
Almost all all of the final scene
Ad break
Last few seconds followed by closing credits
Ad break

Exactly.
I remember being driven to DESPAIR trying to get through episodes of 24 (ok that was originally on Sky One I think, but its the same on there). In the end I binned it off and waited for the boxsets. It was literally unwatchable on there. 15 minutes of ads in a 60 minute show ? Come on. I mean COME ON.

 

[clapham_gull]

Another factor is what Amazon / Netflix are up to.

Why buy other peoples programmes when you can make your high quality ones ? You don't even need to run ads if you working on a subscription model.

If you invest the money the quality of the product is the same because you are often just employing the same freelance staff.

Let people "binge watch", draw them to service 'cos that's the first place you can watch them.

.. and then sell them on to traditional broadcasters to squeeze a bit more money out of it.

We are going to see a massive shift and it's not just about changing viewing habits. It's about how the traditional broadcasters make any money.

 

[Worthingite]

And to think they had the bloody cheek to send me this today. I only have my broadband with them now having cut the tv off last year, but still. They've got a nerve

 

[Hyperion]

Is there anything decent left on Sky besides Sport?

Loads of HBO stuff of which some is excellent. Saying that Sky and now BT are ripping an a**hole through sport but it's all about the dollar. It ain't gonna change anytime soon.

What is laughable is that you can see Sky are clearly losing their grip on the sport market and I can see within 10/15 yrs that every game will be pay per view much like how the film market is all fkd up now so you kinda have to sign up to 3/4/5 different services to get the best of what is on offer

 

[Sussex Nomad]

I'm looking at Virgin Media now, Sky is a complete waste of money and a joke.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

It's all about the Premier League for Sky.

But Sky is attempting to cut its bill for the Discovery channels after shelling out £4.2 billion ($5.3 billion) on Premier League rights for the next three seasons. Sky blamed the increased football costs for a 9% drop in profit on Thursday. Operating profits fell to £679 million ($860 million) for the six months to 31 December. Revenue rose 12% to £6.41 billion ($8.1 billion) over the same period.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/discovery-in-extraordinary-row-with-sky-2017-1

 

[Cian]

They'd still need to pay Sky £££ to appear on the TV guide.

Are the EPG costs available anywhere? I know ages ago when I worked with a TV station it was cheaper to be FTA than encrypted as you weren't paying royalties for the encryption tech; but the system was going to be changed "in the future" which is now very much the past

 

[GoingUp]

I couldnt careless about Eurosport, but I watch the Discovery and History channel's ALOT surely Sky wont be stupid enough to lose them channels? They will likely lose loads of customers.

 

[ManOfSussex]

So the last hurrah of Eurosport on Sky will be a 5 set marathon epic between Nadal and Federer on Sunday morning.

 

[clapham_gull]

I couldnt careless about Eurosport, but I watch the Discovery and History channel's ALOT surely Sky wont be stupid enough to lose them channels? They will likely lose loads of customers.

I genuinely think Sky know better than most broadcasters why people watch their service and why.

I'd also suggest they would rather use the money to pump into their original programmes.

Sorry to say but dropping a load of linear channels merely accelerates their longer term plans.

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