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Sky Sports/BT Sports deal

Gym Beglin

By Gym Beglin,
in FF - Football Forum

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Gym Beglin Grand Master

Gym Beglin

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/15/bt-sky-deal-atlantic-and-sport-channels-customers#comment-109747015

 

BT customers are to get access to all of Sky’s sport and entertainment channels, including Game of Thrones for the first time, in a landmark deal that could have major ramifications for Premier League rights auction.

The deal marks the end of a long-running dispute over carrying each others channels that has run for the best part of a decade, as the two companies wrangled over commercial terms.

It means Sky customers will be able to watch BT channels with sport, including Champions League, Premiership rugby and Premier League matches it does not currently air without a separate subscription.

The deal will give BT’s TV platform a much needed boost – new quarterly subscriber numbers have dropped to record low of about 8,000 – with prime Sky content including all Premier League football matches to be made available.

BT TV subscribers will finally get access to Sky Atlantic, which airs hugely popular programmes such as Game of Thrones, Billions, Riviera and Fortitude. They will also get access to Sky’s entertainment channels including Sky Living, Sky One and Sky Cinema by adding the Now TV streaming service to BT set top boxes from 2019. BT will sell Now TV subscription passes, which allows customers to watch Sky programmes without a monthly subscription.

BT and Sky have been at loggerheads for years over the issue of channel carriage, most acrimoniously over access to Sky’s prime sports channels which had been the subject of a protracted legal battle which BT lost.

BT appears to be gaining the most from the deal, with just 1.7m TV customers and anaemic growth it needed to supercharge its content. Sky will gain access to pay-TV fans.

Analysts believe that it could impact the scale of bidding when the Premier League TV rights auction begins in February.

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The channel deals mean that Sky and BT customers can now gain access to all Premier League matches without being forced to choose to by TV packages from either, or both. Analysts believe this could mean that the fear of missing out on the best games package in the auction – which has spurred rampant price inflation in recent bidding – could recede.

“This could mean that both BT and Sky can take their foot off the accelerator,” says Richard Broughton of Ampere Analysis. “The cost to either BT or Sky of ‘no access’ to games has massively reduced, so they may not feel they need to bid as competitively. Of course there is the big unknown of whether a new bidder, like Amazon, might enter the auction.”

BT and Sky had paid more than £5bn for Premier League rights last time, with costs rising 70% at each of the past two auctions. Bosses of both companies had complained about the high cost for sports rights.

City analysts believe inflation could hit 40% this auction, although pay-TV company sources predict a 23% hike.

“This is an important day for BT and for our customers,” said Gavin Patterson, chief executive of BT. “We feel that now is the right time to broaden the ways we distribute BT Sport.”

Sky chief Jeremy Darroch said: “This is great news for Sky customers who will be able to access all matches on Sky and BT channels from the Premier League, Champions League and Europa League directly with a single Sky TV subscription.”

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Rico1304 Grand Master

Rico1304

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Seems to me like the two school bullies have joined forces to stop the Premier League from making them compete against each other.

 

Here endeth the golden period of TV money.

 

Been talk of Amazon getting involved in bidding, but I'd be very surprised to see it come to pass.

Prepare to be surprised. Amazon want to own everything.

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LF:D Proficient

LF:D

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Prepare to be surprised. Amazon want to own everything.

 

Yep I can see that happening.

 

They could stream football globally, have Amazon as a marketing logo on it and make a fortune, plus great exposure for their brand.

 

I can see that being the future.

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Kloppite Mentor

Kloppite

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This is due to start in 2019 which coincides with the UK leaving the EU this means that the EU ruling that states that premier league broadcast rights can only be owned by one broadcaster wil no longer be law unless of course the UK government uphold this ruling.

 

I think we will go back to the days ultimately of one broadcaster owning all the rights to premier league games.

 

To hazard a guess I also think this will be when we start to see the premier league start to sell the rights to all games via the internet. I think this is inevitable as they are probably losi g a load of money to the current subscriptions services.

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  • 4 years later...
Vincent Vega Grand Master

Vincent Vega

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This is interesting news and could be a game changer from a TV rights point of view. Explains why so many Americans are buying up our clubs and there was such interest in Chelsea despite what seemed a ludicrous valuation. I’ll bet Sky will be rattled as football is crucial to their business plan  

 

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