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BT acquire ESPN's UK operation (February 2013)

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NG
noggin Founding member
Jon posted:
Steve Williams posted:
Jon posted:
Meant sports news.


I seriously don't think that's a priority. Even on Freeview you have frequent sports bulletins on BBC News and Sky News, and if you were that interested in sport you wanted more, you'd probably have got Sky or Virgin anyway, and hence Sky Sports News. Setanta Sports News was just a complete waste of time, Sky Sports News can benefit from piggy backing on Sky's rights and without those it's just aimless chat half the time.

Sky Sports News did get good figures on Freeview though and the main reason Sky removed it was it gave too much value to the Freeview package.

BT would have access to Premier League and FA Cup goals as well as Premiership Rugby, I could imagine they could even go for 'news channel' status and show stuff from other broadcasters or get a deal with the BBC to show clips of stuff they hold the rights to and are allowed to sub let.

There are lots of people who are interested in sport that can't afford subscription television and there could be lots of business who could use the service, for example Wetherspoons used to show Sky Sports News but it doesn't subscribe to the business rates for Sky Sports the same with a local sport themed barbers.

Sky Sports News was on Freeview because Sky were committed to provide Freeview with three services but was a massive shop window.

I don't think it'll happen anyway.


There was also the plan for SSN to be on Sky's aborted Picnic service wasn't there? They were going to switch their exisiting Freeview bandwidth from FTA MPEG2 to Pay-TV MPEG4 ISTR - then they shelved it.
GE
thegeek Founding member
flaziola posted:
I see the DOGS have become transparent.


They'll be staying opaque for first-run and live programming. They've also got BT Sport Films and BT Sport Classic DOGs for some shows.

For those of you who fancy a gander at the studios, Lost in TV have tickets for pretty much any night of the week - though be aware you'd probably have to do a fair bit of standing around and/or having to get home from Stratford late at night. Life's a Pitch tend to have bands on Thursdays: The Duckworth Lewis Method a couple of weeks ago, and Travis are on tonight's show.
noggin posted:
There was also the plan for SSN to be on Sky's aborted Picnic service wasn't there? They were going to switch their exisiting Freeview bandwidth from FTA MPEG2 to Pay-TV MPEG4 ISTR - then they shelved it.
Wasn't it shelved because of a lack of Ofcom approval?
MI
Mike516
thegeek posted:

noggin posted:
There was also the plan for SSN to be on Sky's aborted Picnic service wasn't there? They were going to switch their exisiting Freeview bandwidth from FTA MPEG2 to Pay-TV MPEG4 ISTR - then they shelved it.
Wasn't it shelved because of a lack of Ofcom approval?


Ofcom dragged its heels. Eventually it approved Picnic on 31 March 2010 subject to Sky agreeing to offer its sports channels to its competitors under the wholesale must offer terms. Sky famously did not agree (and appealed the Ofcom ruling). http://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/mar/31/ofcom-sky-sports-price-cut and http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/third_paytv/statement/paytv_statement.pdf With the expansion of IPTV, Sky has subsequently gone down the Now TV IPTV route.
BR
Brekkie
It was always a non-starter which Sky was more interested in using as a way to decrease the number of channels available on Freeview rather than offer a genuine low cost pay TV addition to the platform.
HA
harshy Founding member
thegeek posted:
flaziola posted:
I see the DOGS have become transparent.


They'll be staying opaque for first-run and live programming. They've also got BT Sport Films and BT Sport Classic DOGs for some shows.

For those of you who fancy a gander at the studios, Lost in TV have tickets for pretty much any night of the week - though be aware you'd probably have to do a fair bit of standing around and/or having to get home from Stratford late at night. Life's a Pitch tend to have bands on Thursdays: The Duckworth Lewis Method a couple of weeks ago, and Travis are on tonight's show.
noggin posted:
There was also the plan for SSN to be on Sky's aborted Picnic service wasn't there? They were going to switch their exisiting Freeview bandwidth from FTA MPEG2 to Pay-TV MPEG4 ISTR - then they shelved it.
Wasn't it shelved because of a lack of Ofcom approval?


Thanks thegeek for that site link often wondered how to get into the audiences, also a good way to see the studios themselves.
RD
rdd Founding member
Having a chance to watch some of BT Sport today and wondering about the Premiership Rugby coverage - almost zero build up in favour of football and a football ticker constantly on screen during coverage.

Given the amount of money BT paid for the rights Premiership Rugby probably aren't all that perturbed, but what do the fans think? I'm not sure of the value of it anyway seeing as football fans are probably watching Soccer Saturday.

The graphics are quite ordinary, I must say.
BR
Brekkie
If you go back in the main sport thread long enough I think you'll find me complaining about when the BBC used to flash up football scores during the rugby - it's completely disrespectful both to the viewer and the sport.

Wasn't overly impressed with the coverage I saw last night - there was nothing particularly wrong with it but it wasn't anything special. Also interesting the rugby coverage also uses the "Come Together" theme.
JO
Jon
Brekkie posted:
If you go back in the main sport thread long enough I think you'll find me complaining about when the BBC used to flash up football scores during the rugby - it's completely disrespectful both to the viewer and the sport.

They're not doing it during the actual match coverage are they?
RD
rdd Founding member
Jon posted:
Brekkie posted:
If you go back in the main sport thread long enough I think you'll find me complaining about when the BBC used to flash up football scores during the rugby - it's completely disrespectful both to the viewer and the sport.

They're not doing it during the actual match coverage are they?



Yup, it's a ticker running constantly at the top of the screen. As I say it's treating the rugby almost as one long break in a football programme, it didn't merit it's own opening titles and is being anchored, such as it is, by Jake Humphreys. Like I say he's not doing much talking about rugby at all, it was all football.
JO
Jon
rdd posted:

Yup, it's a ticker running constantly at the top of the screen. As I say it's treating the rugby almost as one long break in a football programme, it didn't merit it's own opening titles and is being anchored, such as it is, by Jake Humphreys. Like I say he's not doing much talking about rugby at all, it was all football.

I don't think football has opening titles does it, the idea is it gels together like Grandstand did?

That's pretty surprising they're putting football scores up during the rugby and I'm sure the other way round wouldn't happen. If people wanted a bar of other sports news they could probably develop a text service to give people the option. It's not needed in this age of smart phones and tablets.
RD
rdd Founding member
Yeah, I think the Grandstand feel is what they're going for - intro in and out of breaks is just "BT Sport 1".

At least its now clear why they didn't retain ESPN's space-wasting bottom bar - there'd be very little screen space left for the match! And the clock is back to ticking the "correct" way again.
BR
Brekkie
Even those watching the rugby who are interested in the scores may want to avoid them if they still try and watch Match of the Day without knowing the days scores.

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