ITV and Sky lose all live Champions League and Europa League matches from next season

[Wilka]

Sky's coverage is good. Bt sport use Michael Owen....

 

[Ludensian Gull]

After months of on going problems with bt they have written to say that as long as we stay with them we will get bt HD free for as long as we want it. Was on the verge of switching to Sky broadband but they couldn't offer unlimited use due to our location.

 

[carlzeiss]

Think match of the day and other licenses stop 3pm games being shown

For 3pm kick offs Wiziwig is all you need

 

[beorhthelm]

BT Broadband does not work properly for everyone. Not without BT Infinity. And then not always with that. Too slow to watch TV.

i use BT Broadband and typically only get 4Mbps. i hook up the TV to a second output on the computer to watch. its fine, a bit glitchy occasionally, but less than my satellite on HD channels. the quality is a long way from HD though its better if i reduce the screen size down. for free its fine.

 

[clippedgull]

Think you'll find BT Sport will be free for a few years yet whilst they build the numbers

I think you will be correct, although a minimal charge (£5?) maybe applied from 15/16 for Champions League. The real battle will commence when the Premier League rights come up for auction. Will be so good to see SKY get a good kicking from a company that can outbid them.

 

[Goring-by-Seagull]

Well I didn't know this. I went for BT purely for BT Sports HD as it's cheap and will show a few games a week that I will watch. I wasn't willing to spunk nearly 30 quid a month on Sky Sports for a whole host of games (and various other sports) I don't care about so I figured BT Sports would give me something to watch and cost me next to nothing.

So they have all European games!?? Looks like there'll be some footy parties (ie excuses to booze one off) round mine then

 

[Rich Suvner]

Makes me laugh when you hear some Sky Sports subscribers complaining about how unfair it is that everything won't be available via the single subscription. Its not like Sky have some god given right to be the platform with all the content/rights. Anyway I expect the business model will become more about paying for content moving forward. And everything will be available to everyone, for a price

 

[nicko31]

there's some staggering numbers in that article

i gave up on paying to watch live football years ago

Match Of The Day & The Football League Show are more than enough of a weekend

Will NEVER subscribe to Sky or any pay TV, why pay for TV and watch ads. Now TV for a tenner now and then for Albion matches,

 

[Kaiser_Soze]

BT are struggling to actually bring in customers. Of the 500,000 people that have BT sport, only a small percentage pay for subscription. Most get it free with their broadband. Not a great business model. On top of that, there are known issues with the BT Vision box which BT seem unable to resolve. Our box fully reboots itself, not just an off and on again, on a fairly regularly basis.

 

[Rookie]

As long as sky have the football league that will do for me.
Still staggered that uefa took the rights from itv, BTs promise of 'free games' could mean anything especially in the group stages.

 

[seagulls4ever]

Champions League is still on Sky and ITV this coming season.

BT phoned me and said I had to sign a new 12 month contract if I wanted BT Sport free again for this coming season. I said no and so it is now cancelled. I will review options again for the 14/15 season when BT have more of a chunk of the football.

 

[Gregory2Smith1]

Will NEVER subscribe to Sky or any pay TV, why pay for TV and watch ads. Now TV for a tenner now and then for Albion matches,

yeah,surprised the TV companies haven't gone down this route,a kind of ST for individual clubs,I would pay a one-off fee to have access to all of Brighton's games

 

[beorhthelm]

BT are struggling to actually bring in customers. Of the 500,000 people that have BT sport, only a small percentage pay for subscription. Most get it free with their broadband. Not a great business model.

its not about simply selling subscriptions, theres the "platform" to build. BT cant really compete on price and the regulator forces them to unbundle and share any infrastructure they roll out. so to just keep people on thier service they need to offer something else. people not leaving counts as much as people paying.

for me the biggest problem they have is the interface on the BT sport page. its awful and a chore to find something as simple as a schedule of upcoming games/programmes.

 

[coagulantwolf]

I think you will be correct, although a minimal charge (£5?) maybe applied from 15/16 for Champions League. The real battle will commence when the Premier League rights come up for auction. Will be so good to see SKY get a good kicking from a company that can outbid them.

Will it though? If it comes to a bidding war, and Sky are outbidded, the company that manage to outbid them in the long run will have to charge customers even more (as the bidding war has caused them to pay 'over the odds' as it were) to maintain profit margins. How's that good for the customer that they pay more?

I've always thought sport and TV coverage is an interesting market. Basic economics you know competition to be a good thing, and you don't want a monopoly, yet by having more companies competing, rather than buying one package that covers every game televised (for example the Premier League), you actually have to buy two (BT and Sky), which together will cost you greater.

 

[beorhthelm]

I've always thought sport and TV coverage is an interesting market. Basic economics you know competition to be a good thing, and you don't want a monopoly, yet by having more companies competing, rather than buying one package that covers every game televised (for example the Premier League), you actually have to buy two (BT and Sky), which together will cost you greater.

you dont have to watch every game, you could just watch one. would you apply this train of thought to watching films, buying a TV or anything else "i have to buy several to make sure ive had all the features"? i wonder how many suscribers do watch every game, even when its on Sky, reckon alot watch one or two as the rest of life commitments/TV scheduleing allows.

 

[Wozza]

I heard that NFL has some sort of rule that if a game sells out or sells a minimum proportion, then the game is shown live on TV in the home state, if not it isn't. Maybe football could try something like that. I guess the difference is that there are so many clubs in England and the argument is always that people won't bother going to see say Lewes on a Saturday at 3pm if they can stay at home and match Man U Chelsea instead..

Yes, that is the difference. But it's about lower-league clubs too, not just non-league.

 

[Rookie]

Yes, that is the difference. But it's about lower-league clubs too, not just non-league.

And Saturday afternoon park football. Play in the rain on a bog or watch x team from your arm chair?!?!

 

[Gertrude]

Think match of the day and other licenses stop 3pm games being shown

Oh really? I read it was attendance but this sounds more likely. Perhaps a bit of both maybe?

For 3pm kick offs Wiziwig is all you need

This! Although I dont use it much as tend to play the same time as

Also used to use mobdro app on my android to watch sky sports travelling too/from away games.

 

[Weststander]

Tbh I can't remember the last time I watched the champions league, it bores me!!

What?

You don't get excited when Arsenal's beat a Greek or Turkisk club 3-0 at the Emirates and are then talked up a potential winners?

 

[Northern Monkey]

Anything that gets Clive "Gormless ****" Tyldsley and Andy "Plastic Paddy" Townsend off our screens is a good thing. The sound of that pair of educationally subnormal muppets wittering on makes me want to put a brick through my tv.