BT Sport - Launch of BT Sport Ultimate

the Goals Show hasn't returned for this week's Champions League matches, because there are only two per night; instead it's moved to Thursdays for the Europa League, and will be 4 hours long, presented by Matt Smith, and on BT Sport 1.

If only all broadcasting rivalries could be like this

Football friends! @mrdanwalker and @BBCSport join @mrjakehumphrey and the @btsport team pitch-side. #EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/WwyDlfITZQ

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) February 22, 2016

Most of them probably are.

Rather mundane thing to post.

I'm led to believe that the 2018-21 UEFA CL and EL rights process for Europe timetable will be released shortly after Easter. Based on the shock BT win for 2015-18, we should get to know who'll win these in November of this year.

They do seem to award the next rights deal practically before the last deal has even begun. Still amazes me how much Sky and BT are willing to pay for such short term deals and doesn't really do viewers any favours with the prospect of them flipping from one provider to another in such a short period.

Will be interesting whether ITV bid this time around - I suspect both Sky and BT would want exclusivity but if partnering with ITV means they beat out the other then they'll go for it. I do think though although ITV Sport may be missing what was arguably the jewel in their crown that ITV as a whole probably isn't missing it at all and although the Tuesday night line up is as uninspiring as ever financially it must make so much more sense. They're probably happy to stick with the Six Nations rights and racing through to 2021 instead.

Will be interesting to see how UEFA play this one given the massive drop in exposure the competition has suffered whilst in the hands of BT, and how this has raised concerns (according to article below anyway).

Perhaps Sky or BT joint bidding with a free to air partner might be a better compromise after all.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/champions-league/12151245/BT-Sports-dismal-Champions-League-viewing-figures-raise-concerns-at-Uefa.html

I don't think BT do a bad job of the Champions League however they are seriously missing a terrestrial partner for it. I don't hope the UCL take greed the same way as the ECB for cricket, virtually no live test matches on TV for over a decade, popularlity has dwindled and attracted very few new viewers to the sport.

Tough call if ITV misses UEFA than UEFA misses ITV.

The problem with BT is that if it's not on Freeview, it might as well be behind the paywall. That's why the ratings on Showcase have been no better than on the other BT channels.

BT have done the minimum possible with their free to air offerings, only announcing them at last minute and using them all up in the group stages (or in Man Utd's case, the qualifying stage). I suspect it'll be the same with the final too. They're happy enough to rent the capacity to air just a few hours of content a month, but don't want to tell anyone about it.

From their point of view they'd probably be looking to drop that requirement completely and will claim that viewership is so low on the showcase channel it's not necessary, whilst of course the counter argument is that if they sub-let those games to a FTA broadcaster the figures would be much better - although that could hit BT's subscriber numbers.

Real Madrid v Roma is on Showcase tonight, and Athletic Bilbao v Valencia on Thursday - but there doesn't appear to be any mention on the BT Sport website. It's almost like they don't want anyone to watch it.

Their partners in crime Setanta are exactly the same - they are seemingly required as part of their Europa League contract to show one game and the highlights show each week FTV on satellite (cable customers get access to Setanta Ireland on their basic packages), but have never announced or trailed this and only a person with an eagle eye on the Sky EPG would realise that this is the case.

I think the thinking may be, that if nobody watches it, they can go to UEFA next time around and argue to be released from the FTA/FTV obligation.