Champions League and BT Sport

[Uncle Leo]

BT getting the CL rights is a big old blow for Sky and ITV, particularly the latter. Great news for the PL as well - they know Sky *have* to get the rights for that when the next round of bidding comes round, so more cash going to the top of the game. Hooray!

Still not enough to persuade me to cough up for BT Sport as well but it is certainly a big coup for them.

Great piece in The Telegraph today about this, well worth a read

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ovejoy-is-poster-boy-for-games-lost-soul.html

 

[Pubey]

I don't quite understand it all, but doesn't it have quite major implications for broadband? I currently have Sky TV and Broadband. As I understand it if you're a BT Broadband customer then you (currently) get BT Sport for free (online, or via your Sky box). So it's quite tempting to cancel Sky Broadband and move to BT Broadband so I get some free sports (I don't have Sky Sports any more cos £25 pm is a lot), and keep Sky TV for Atlantic etc.

 

[chapperzUK]

I think you only get BT Sports free for a year if you have BT Broadband. We did that and still can't get it on the Sky box and sometimes doesn't work via their website. Although it only seems to be Premiership games that suffer so been watching other countries, mainly Dortmund, Roma and Milan so far this season.

 

[Pubey]

I think you only get BT Sports free for a year if you have BT Broadband. We did that and still can't get it on the Sky box and sometimes doesn't work via their website. Although it only seems to be Premiership games that suffer so been watching other countries, mainly Dortmund, Roma and Milan so far this season.

Ahh ok. I really enjoy CL football so may have to have a serious think about things when 2015 starts.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Potentially good news for us as well.

Crowds are really down on Champions League nights.

Sadly they are talking about having some games free-to-air.

 

[Uncle Leo]

Ahh ok. I really enjoy CL football so may have to have a serious think about things when 2015 starts.

BT have promised they'll make sure every British team will be shown on free-to-air at least once a season, but that's not much of a promise. Could be for example, Man Utd at home to Cluj, Chelsea at home to Austria Vienna, that sort of thing.

 

[Berrichonne shrimper]

Its all free if you stream it and just hook up your computer to your tv,you could even watch the not so mighty Berrichonne if you want BT or no BT.

 

[Ricey]

The only good thing about this is less air time for that **** Adrian Chiles.

 

[londonblue]

BT getting the CL rights is a big old blow for Sky and ITV, particularly the latter. Great news for the PL as well - they know Sky *have* to get the rights for that when the next round of bidding comes round, so more cash going to the top of the game. Hooray!

Still not enough to persuade me to cough up for BT Sport as well but it is certainly a big coup for them.

Great piece in The Telegraph today about this, well worth a read

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ovejoy-is-poster-boy-for-games-lost-soul.html

That is indeed a very good article. It won't change my behaviour, certainly not in the short term.

My only hope is that so much of the football on TV will end up behind a pay-wall, and tickets for the Premiership become so hard to come by that clubs like that effectively self destruct, to the benefit of clubs like us, and the Football League in general.

 

[EastStandBlue]

The only good thing about this is less air time for that **** Adrian Chiles.

Swings and roundabouts, it keeps cretins like Tim Lovejoy in gainful employment.

It's a fairly devastating blow for Sky who certainly invested a lot in refining their Champions League coverage. I watched BT Sport for the first time when they were free to air the other week and it was abysmal, better than ITV's **** poor attempts but certainly not a patch on Sky's, which has greatly improved over the last 18 months or so. Spending circa £900m on the Champions League would suggest BT have the cash to throw at some better pundits and a more competent host or two, but for the moment it makes for dreadful viewing.

I've seen a few reports stating that BT are going over Sky's other contracts for events like the Ryder Cup, so Sky may have to dig deep and brace themselves for an all-out slog in the next few years. Sky usually aren't a company to rest on its laurels and its seen off countless competition in the past, so it'll be interesting to see what they pull out. Slashing the price of a sports sub or increasing the number of leagues it has coverage from would be great news.

 

[Ricey]

Yes I forgot he was on there and also Jake Humphrey is also on there and personally I think he is a terrible presenter and was glad he left the BBC. If he is on the football it's another reason for me not to get BT.

 

[Jam_Man]

Swings and roundabouts, it keeps cretins like Tim Lovejoy in gainful employment.

It's a fairly devastating blow for Sky who certainly invested a lot in refining their Champions League coverage. I watched BT Sport for the first time when they were free to air the other week and it was abysmal, better than ITV's **** poor attempts but certainly not a patch on Sky's, which has greatly improved over the last 18 months or so. Spending circa £900m on the Champions League would suggest BT have the cash to throw at some better pundits and a more competent host or two, but for the moment it makes for dreadful viewing.

I've seen a few reports stating that BT are going over Sky's other contracts for events like the Ryder Cup, so Sky may have to dig deep and brace themselves for an all-out slog in the next few years. Sky usually aren't a company to rest on its laurels and its seen off countless competition in the past, so it'll be interesting to see what they pull out. Slashing the price of a sports sub or increasing the number of leagues it has coverage from would be great news.

Have you watched the BT sports panel on a Saturday morning. I dare anyone to watch it and try not to turn it off after 10 minutes. Its awful. I actually like Tim Lovejoy bu the whole production is a terrible and Matt Dawson is cringeworthy.

 

[EastStandBlue]

Have you watched the BT sports panel on a Saturday morning. I dare anyone to watch it and try not to turn it off after 10 minutes. Its awful. I actually like Tim Lovejoy bu the whole production is a terrible and Matt Dawson is cringeworthy.

Nope, I gave that one a swerve, but the coverage of the game was bad enough. In my opinion Lovejoy's something of a relic, a throwback to an altogether less intelligent and more chummy past of football coverage. He has this conceited belief that he's an integral element of some wider tapestry of the game, that it wouldn't be the same without his presence and that it struggled in his absence after he jumped the sinking Soccer AM ship. He's Richard Keys, minus the monkey hands.

The fact that Matt Dawson gets on a programme designed to host football debate is testament to that. He only gets bookings these days because he's Lovejoy's mate and if that article is anything to go by, his antics when Lovejoy took it upon himself to be BT Sport's official spokesman must've been vomit inducing.

I don't think it's any coincidence that his career has really taken off since he left Sky Sports and was part in Channel 4's Sunday morning thing. He has the right kind of smarm to endear himself to that demographic and blow smoke up the arse of whichever hungover celebrity they've conned into the studio that morning. I think football's left him behind a bit now, though. You look at Sky's recent sports programming built around Neville and Carragher's MNF, Sunday Supplement and the excellent Footballer's Football Show, and there's definitely a far more concerted approach at far more in-depth analysis and insight than ever before. Lovejoy's incapable of offering that.

Which is a shame, as apparently he's an unfathomably nice guy off air.

 

[Smiffy]

I don't quite understand it all, but doesn't it have quite major implications for broadband? I currently have Sky TV and Broadband. As I understand it if you're a BT Broadband customer then you (currently) get BT Sport for free (online, or via your Sky box). So it's quite tempting to cancel Sky Broadband and move to BT Broadband so I get some free sports (I don't have Sky Sports any more cos £25 pm is a lot), and keep Sky TV for Atlantic etc.

I have my TV and Broadband with Virgin. We get all the BT Sports channels for free. Whether that will change in time for 2015 I don't know. Won't be surprised though.

 

[Ricey]

I didn't realise they have the MotoGP from next season also. Leaves BBC with very limited on the sports front now. No wonder Jake jumped ship.

 

[Uncle Leo]

I didn't realise they have the MotoGP from next season also. Leaves BBC with very limited on the sports front now. No wonder Jake jumped ship.

Can't say I'm heartbroken about that one. More money for the BBC to spend on actual sports.




















Or, more likely, ****ing baking programmes.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Or, more likely, ****ing baking programmes.

Oh you little tease! :blush:

 

[leeblue]

I really like BT sports for what its worth, keep up the good work chaps (I get it for free on virgin)

 

[steveo]

It was apparently a single bid auction and it appears BT may have paid well over the odds. I'm sure Barna will let us know.
Sky claim only 3% of their viewers watch Champs League so its probably not a big miss for them.
Looks like BT will need a sharp price increase to pay for this.

 

[Ricey]

It was apparently a single bid auction and it appears BT may have paid well over the odds. I'm sure Barna will let us know.
Sky claim only 3% of their viewers watch Champs League so its probably not a big miss for them.
Looks like BT will need a sharp price increase to pay for this.

To be honest I don't really watch the Champions League, unless it's a game of interest or an important one otherwise I would much rather watch something else. Now if it was premier league football it would be a different story.