BT Sport - Launch of BT Sport Ultimate

Just saw an ad for Sky Sports 5 proclaiming it "Your new home of the Sky Bet Championship". That's probably an indication that it's short time as "the home of European football" is over.

Not long after TWICE scheduling Sunderland v Southampton at midday, BT Sport have this season scheduled Newcastle v Bournemouth for a lunchtime kickoff.

They're not even trying to hide their attempts to get people to stay at home and watch it are they?

Serves La Liga right if they've lost out financially by taking it to a second round of bidding despite Sky bidding significantly more in round 1.

Although I have BT sympathies, It really staggers me that this deal has materialised if the background publicised is correct. There's been a number of rumours circulating as to process, which I've heard, but not printed here, about rules being changed and process restarted. The Spanish authorities really seem to have not prepared for such a hostile bidding process. They should have been. I'm not surprised by the second round, it is an auction after all. Sky throwing their metaphorical toys out of the pram at the thought of a 'much more substantial' BT second round bid is astonishing. They should at least have stayed in the contest even at the same bid as the first round. Making BT put up or shut-up would seem the minimal requirement. Remember a second round is required for the FAPL rights too.

It does surprise me that 12 hours after the publicity broke, neither protagonist or referee has made any comment. I wonder if an announcement will be co-incidental with the Charity Shield tomorrow.

The question does arise that if BT are surprised as winners then a significant re-planning, and quickly too, exercise will be necessary. I can see one of the seven Extra channels being quickly redefined as BT Sport 3 or BT Europe 2 as it's needed because a major slew of airtime each weekend will be required to cover the league, it's a massive deal with hundreds of matches in the mix.

The fate of the Copa del Rey is interesting, some reports indicate that a separate deal is in place for 2015-6 with Sky for this.

One interesting element will be the use of BT Sport Ultra HD to carry some of the games, as this is inherent in the new Spanish domestic deal this season.

SS5 had been earmarked to show Football League matches before the Spanish auction concluded.

As far as the Copa del Rey goes, Sky have rights up to 2018.

http://www.5times4.com/scroll//report-sky-to-lose-la-liga-rights-to-bt

I have no insider knowledge here about the rights; but I doubt the above will be the case.

Turning a red button stream into a full-service channel means there's a *lot* more airtime to fill; the advantage of the current set-up is that they can just be fired up on an ad-hoc basis.

Remember, they're already geared up for 8 simultaneous Champions League games, so handling a handful of extra matches at the weekend is fairly trivial in comparison. They're likely to be gallery-only productions with no studio wraparounds - unless the games are picked to be part of the European Football Show.

I'm already having a bit of a headache about how UHD La Liga might work though. I mean, I'm sure we can make it happen, but I think we'll want to get a few OBs with our own truck out of the way first

One today, one next Saturday - how many more do you need

BT Sport Europe are broadcasting with a Sky Sports News style info bar / side panel for their recorded shows today. I asusme it goes for the live stuff.

Well, it's a rubbish journey whenever you make it, if it was a 3pm kick-off away fans wouldn't get home until after midnight probably. At least now they have the opportunity of staying at home and still seeing it.

Thing is across Europe there are companies that have channels which are only part time channels - even Sky does it in Germany and Italy and Fox Sports and Sport1 do it in Netherlands where the extra channels are only used when they are required and are not filled with repeats or fillers. Lets not forget Sky UK/Eire also did the same with The Prem Channel - only used when they showed a match.

...and that's sort of what the BT Sport Extra services are - they just don't tie up an EPG postion. (And don't have adverts - or at least, didn't before the launch of the new ones at the weekend.)

Anyhow, this is a pres forum. Why no mention of BT Sport's refreshed pres?

It does make much more sense and now BT have abandoned the Freeview channels once people have the BT Sport Pack they have access to all their channels, so putting content on BT Sport ESPN or BT Sport Extra isn't restricting who can view it (beyond those limited to SS1).

There must surely be a point though where they have too much to make it worth while - they've got the Bundesliga (and Bundesliga 2), French Ligue, Portugese League and Serie A as it is, and from next season their Premier League games will be in the Saturday night slot. There is a danger that by offering so much and forcing viewers to become more selective in what they watch that in actual fact the viewers will end up watching even less.

P.S. For the European leagues do BT and Sky use their own commentators or does each league produce a "world feed" with English commentary. Suspect the answer is a bit of both.