Could be a few comments around after UEFA has extended Pepsico's sponsorship deal of the Champions League, one of the key PepsiCo brands being promoted in this extension is Lays, known as Walkers in the UK. Inevitably Lineker's 'face of the product' role will be linked with his new BT Sport presentation position. In the first match tonight the electronic advertising hordings featured Lays in the Walkers packet style for a few periods. Some tabloid fodder will be around as a result.
He's just stirred the pot .....
Blimey @walkers_crisps are sponsoring the Champions League. Feel all at home now on @btsport
The BT Sport Europe DOG has been shortened to omit the word "Europe" and replace it with the Champions League symbol tonight.
New (but not radically different) Champions League graphics, a lot more white this time round and of course new opening titles as previously mentioned.
UPC Ireland viewers finally got access to BT Sport Europe today, but only the linear channel, not the red button service.
Interesting that as Celtic's match (BTS2) on Saturday is at the same time as Manchester United's (BTS1), they are offering coverage to those on BT Sport Lite - BTS1 only to the match, via the Red Button on Sky. I wonder how this'll work on other platforms.
I think any BT TV customer will get the whole pack anyway. Virgin include all four main channels with their XL package, but not the Extra channels by the looks of it. I think (but might be wrong) the only way you just get BT Sport Lite is if you're a BT broadband customer just watching on the app/website - though that seems much easier said than done since they launched their new app.
Worth noting for these play off games they've only put the one game on a channel, with all the others on BT Sport Extra. The provisional schedules for week 1 of the group stage also has games on BT Sport 2 and BT Sport ESPN on both nights, plus BT Sport 1 on the Tuesday, which I'm guessing might be simulcast on BT Sport Showcase.
Last edited by Brekkie on 19 August 2015 9:54pm - 2 times in total
I think any BT TV customer will get the whole pack anyway. Virgin include all four main channels with their XL package, but not the Extra channels by the looks of it. I think (but might be wrong) the only way you just get BT Sport Lite is if you're a BT broadband customer just watching on the app/website - though that seems much easier said than done since they launched their new app.
Worth noting for these play off games they've only put the one game on a channel, with all the others on BT Sport Extra. The provisional schedules for week 1 of the group stage also has games on BT Sport 2 and BT Sport ESPN on both nights, plus BT Sport 1 on the Tuesday, which I'm guessing might be simulcast on BT Sport Showcase.
Via the red button on Virgin I've got BT Sport Europe, BT Sport Extra 2,3,4 and 5. So it looks like I've got them all...
Looks like it. Extra 1 is billed as being part of the lite pack I guess for situations like the weekend where content won't all fit on BT Sport 1. I'm quite surprised really that BT haven't held back the majority of the extra channels for BT TV, though I guess most of their customers probably still come via other providers, plus making their content available strengthens the argument in their campaign to get all the Sky Sports channels on their platform.
the Extra channels are only available in HD on BT TV for the time being.
I had a play around with the connected TV app on a BT TV box last night, and was pretty impressed - very responsive, loads of match stats, and you can hide it all except for goal alerts from other games, which come with a 'press green to switch to this match' prompt.
The iPhone app is nifty too - every noteworthy incident from every game is available to replay from umpteen camera angles. I believe it's provided by UEFA's graphics and data supplier, deltatre - so obviously the logging and replay bits can be used by any rightsholder, but it uses the BT commentary and graphics for the live games.
If I was more interested in football, I'd probably be really excited by it all. (As it is, the technology is pretty good)
Looks like it. Extra 1 is billed as being part of the lite pack I guess for situations like the weekend where content won't all fit on BT Sport 1. I'm quite surprised really that BT haven't held back the majority of the extra channels for BT TV, though I guess most of their customers probably still come via other providers, plus making their content available strengthens the argument in their campaign to get all the Sky Sports channels on their platform.
Plus there are LOTS of places that can't get BT Infinity, so you need a non-broadband option for them, particularly in HD. (Regular ADSL will often allow SD streaming of BT TV, but for HD and UHD you need Infinity, and at a high enough bitrate, AIUI)
I suspect if BT didn't make the services available via other platforms voluntarily, they could be forced into selling wholesale, as Sky Sports have been?
Depending on which channel you are watching there are two ways to get to BT Sport Xtra.
BT Sport 1 HD has the rounded edged centralised prompt bug at the top of the screen. Pressing red leads you directly to BTSport X1, which at the moment is broadcasting the loop animation. Pressing red takes you back to BT Sport 1. There appears to be no way to get to BT X 2-6 via BTS1.
On BT Sport 2, BT Sport ESPN and BT Sport Europe there is a hideously large generic Press Red bug which brings up a BBCi-style MHEG menu on the left hand side of the screen with a list of matches you can watch. Currently two options are available, one of which is on the BT Sport Europe channel, the other are BTSport X 2-6. Again, there appears to be no way to get to BT Sport X1 via this route. The switch between the channels is pleasantly quick and intuitive considering VM's antiquated digital text system which can take an absolute age on Sky Sports' rugby coverage.
The only minor problem is that there isn't an "exit" opton - the press red bug turns into a "close" option which removes the menu but leaves you on the channel you've chosen - to get back to the "parent" channel you have to press BACK twice on your remote.
I'm guessing that gets them out of showing a Man Utd match during the group stage. With the cricket announcement today including FTA highlights and weekly Big Bash matches I do wonder if ultimately they will move BT Sport Showcase into a more full time free to air sports channel, perhaps at the time where BT Sport 1 becomes part of the Sports pack rather than free to all customers.