BT Sport win rights to champions league & Europa league from 2015

[aRTy]

I'm quite glad somebody has stepped up and challenged sky and i was hoping they had bought sky's rights and not itv's since it was always handy being able to pop into any room with freeview for our games. They just need to get of what seems to be everything ex Liverpool in their punditry at the moment. One thing i can't work out is they said they had first pick on the PL games yet every single one of the games they show is the early saturday kick off with build up starting at HALF 11!

 

[Bobbins]

It's not one of the protected Crown jewels of Sporting events

A list

Olympic Games
World Cup and European Championship finals
English and Scottish FA Cup finals
Grand National and the Derby
Wimbledon
Rugby union's World Cup final
Rugby league's Challenge Cup final

THE B-LIST (Highlights only)

England Test matches
Open golf Championship
The Ryder Cup
Cricket World
Commonwealth Games
World Athletics Championship
Six Nations

It just seems incredible that the FA/whoever can, in one fell swoop, allow BT to simply remove all free terrestrial coverage of football from TV, with a click of the fingers.

No more Channel 5, ITV1, ITV4... I really enjoy being able to watch Spurs on ITV4, and I'm sure fans of Swansea who otherwise never get to see their team without paying for Sky love it as well.

It's incredible they've been allowed to simply remove this huge amount of free-to-air football from the schedule without so much as a consultation.

I have Sky, but not the Sports package, and I don't have BT. This has effectively meant I will no longer ever be able to watch Spurs, or any other team for that matter, apart from very occassional matches in the FA Cup, on tv. It also means I'll never be able to watch Champion's League football, won't be able to see some of Europe's top sides playing (which I really enjoy since it's so rare)...

Now the reality is I usually go round to my parents to watch all Spurs games not on a Thursday and lost of other Sunday and Monday games too, but that's not the point. On Saturday's I'm streaming the feck out of matches. Not the point though.

I'm really just incredulous that this can happen from seemingly out of nowhere.

I guess I'll just continue to get my football through 'unconventional' channels, even moreso now, and BT can quite literally go and fuck themselves right up the arse.

Oh and this whole argument people have put forward about it being good becuase we now have more choice - that's balls. We can now choose to pay two providers to watch the same amount of games we could see with one provider previously, or we can choose to no longer watch football. That's the reality. This is no better for the consumer, who will only have to pay out even more money for ultimately the same service.

 

[tobi]

BT need to remove the activation fee for their channels, I need my European football fix but I'm paying to activate channels, that's just silly.

 

[worcestersauce]

Lets be honest European football is an extra, domestic Premier league football is the the main thing and sky took that away from terrestrial tv decades ago so if the authorities sanctioned that why should they be bothered about European games?
The thing about BT is that they are coming at this from the other direction to sky, they make their money from Broadband, that is their business, lose that and they will no longer exist so actually they don't need to make huge profits from televised sport like sky have always done so I'd guess the pressure to ramp up prices isn't the same.

 

[Star_of_Davids]

I'm quite glad somebody has stepped up and challenged sky and i was hoping they had bought sky's rights and not itv's since it was always handy being able to pop into any room with freeview for our games. They just need to get of what seems to be everything ex Liverpool in their punditry at the moment. One thing i can't work out is they said they had first pick on the PL games yet every single one of the games they show is the early saturday kick off with build up starting at HALF 11!

don't think all their matches are first picks. Think they had something like 14 1st picks in their package. All their matches (with exceptions for midweeks and those such as Spurs v Man U which has been moved due to Europa League) are the Sat 12.45 slot, some of those such as our game v Chelsea are first picks

 

[beats1]

The less of Redknapp and that arse hole Yorke the better.

Pissed off about potentially having to pay more, might not bother, 2/3 of the competition isn't worth watching anyway.

I take it you haven't seen BT sport, it is piss poor compared to sky.

I like Gullit, Hoddle, Neville, Carragher, Jeff and Souness.

Whereas James, Mcmanaman and Owen, the guys who said tottenham will finish 8th

 

[Oshi]

I take it you haven't seen BT sport, it is piss poor compared to sky.

I like Gullit, Hoddle, Neville, Carragher, Jeff and Souness.

Whereas James, Mcmanaman and Owen, the guys who said tottenham will finish 8th

I am personally not interested in the pundits etc. Someone telling me what I just watched for 15mins I don't bother with, half time = calls of nature and call of the fridge / kettle

Would your opinion be different if they said we would finish first, cure cancer and secure world peace?

 

[punky]

This all sounds like ONDigital to me, spending fortunes to buy up everyone else's rights. I can see Sky buying up the rights for a fraction after it goes tits up

 

[beats1]

I am personally not interested in the pundits etc. Someone telling me what I just watched for 15mins I don't bother with, half time = calls of nature and call of the fridge / kettle

Would your opinion be different if they said we would finish first, cure cancer and secure world peace?

No but I enjoy watching highlights and seeing anything they missed and Sky's analysis by Neville is great

 

[Tott66]

Bt are awful,smug presenter and crap pundits especially with David departing 3/10

 

[Oshi]

No but I enjoy watching highlights and seeing anything they missed and Sky's analysis by Neville is great

I will concede with Neville, who would of thought he would actually be likeable?

 

[worcestersauce]

This all sounds like ONDigital to me, spending fortunes to buy up everyone else's rights. I can see Sky buying up the rights for a fraction after it goes tits up

Not sure they are anybody's rights until Uefa actually award them to someone, in this case BT. To be honest this is so big it is just as likely Sky will go tits up, they really can't survive without Premiership football subscriptions, they never have been able to, so they will either lose them or have to pay double what they are now.

 

[muppetman]

Not convinced that Sky's coverage was awesome from the get go. BT are very new to this but I expect them to improve.

I also believe that as company finance and power go isn't BT's significantly higher than Sky's? Therefore if it gets into a dogfight who will win? Guess some of that depends on what resources Murdoch is willing to throw at this. Interesting times and Sky have had it their own way for way too long.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I blame sky, they started it, they've been fleecing people for years. Why don't they include the sports channels in the basic package?

Because they force you to pay for a dish ?

I don't get this or the moans from others. Football is a business, why should they give their product away from free ? Sky is a business and it's buying of football rights in England has been the single most influential factor in the improvement of the quality of football we now all watch.

It's great that BT are now creating a viable bidding opponent to Sky as well, can only mean more money heading the football clubs way.

 

[Syn_13]

BT Sport isn't really worth it if you only watch Premier League games. We've got BT Sport so we can watch the Serie A games so for me it'll be worth it and this news doesn't bother me. One thing that does piss me off though is that you can't use Sky multi-room with BT Sport. If you're paying £15 quid a month for the HD channel I bloody expect multi-room capability!

 

[LSUY]

I like watching the CL but European football isn't worth the price of getting BT Sport. I don't want to pay extra for a channel that shows the odd bit of football I'm actually interested in and has The Clare Balding Show.

 

[worcestersauce]

Because they force you to pay for a dish ?

I don't get this or the moans from others. Football is a business, why should they give their product away from free ? Sky is a business and it's buying of football rights in England has been the single most influential factor in the improvement of the quality of football we now all watch.

It's great that BT are now creating a viable bidding opponent to Sky as well, can only mean more money heading the football clubs way.

No, and I don't really blame sky I just thought it was wrong that some people were saying it was BT's fault for entering the market for a charge, if sky was free BT couldn't charge.
Also as I've said before I don't buy this line that sky saved football, as I recall it was pretty good before.
As it happens I did have to get a dish as my television reception was so bad where I live

 

[yawa]

Too right football wasn't worth watching for a hundred years before Sky came along, makes me sad for all those millions of people that used to pack out the grounds in the 20's 30's 40's 50's 60's 70's and 80's watching rubbish players playing the most unexciting football you could imagine, so bad it used to make me want to poke my eyes out in fact I don't know why I ever bothered to go to every game, I must have imagined just how great it was and all for an entry fee everybody could afford.
All this time I've thought "I'm not falling for this Sky saved football crap" when it seems I was just wrong, Thank God for sky praise the Lord and pass the credit card!!!!

Ah the beauty of not reading posts and going off on a rant.

Did I say saved football? No. Did I say made it what it is today. Well it clearly did.

 

[Cavehillspur]

Well I got broadband from BT in the summer and have BT Sport for free

You may be getting it free now but you can bet your ass it won't be free come 2015

 

[$hoguN]

Because they force you to pay for a dish ?

I don't get this or the moans from others. Football is a business, why should they give their product away from free ? Sky is a business and it's buying of football rights in England has been the single most influential factor in the improvement of the quality of football we now all watch.

It's great that BT are now creating a viable bidding opponent to Sky as well, can only mean more money heading the football clubs way.

You could see it that way, or you could see it that next time round Sky will argue that they should be allowed to purchase all PL rights, get their way, blow everyone out the water and then do the same the next time around with the CL. Meaning that football can only be watched on Sky.

I'm a Sky customer, am completely not bothered by their business actions and appreciate what they have done for the PL in general, but I think companies buying up monopolies on certain competition is ridiculous and I think it is extremely unfair that there is no longer decent football on terrestrial television.