BT buys ESPN

Interesting bit of business for BT. Hopefully this will mean some of the rugby will be shown on traditional platforms, which I believe they said it would when the original deal was announced?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21577676


BT has agreed to buy ESPN's UK and Ireland TV channels as it adds to its live sports coverage.

The deal sees BT acquire the ESPN and ESPN America channels, and their live rights to show FA Cup, Scottish Premier League, Uefa Europa League, and German Bundesliga matches.

The company will launch its BT Sport TV package in the summer.

BT had already secured the rights to show live English Premier League games for the first time, from next season.

The UK telecoms firm has been investing heavily in its sports offering, including buying the rights to show live Aviva Premiership rugby union matches and a deal with the WTA to show women's tennis.

It has taken on some big-name sports presenters including Jake Humphrey, who led the BBC's Formula One coverage, and Clare Balding who presented horse racing and Olympics coverage for the BBC.

The ESPN deal is expected to complete at the end of July. After that BT said it would continue to operate at least one ESPN-branded channel as part of its new sports package.

The ESPN channels will broadcast from BT Sport's new facilities at the Olympic Park in Stratford.

"We are delighted to have reached agreement with ESPN for the acquisition of their UK channels business and that we have been able to add some exciting new sports rights to the ones we already have," said Marc Watson, chief executive of television, BT Retail.

"The FA Cup, Scottish Premier League and Europa League rights will allow us to offer customers of BT Sport even more quality live football, including our first games from the Scottish top flight and our first European competition rights."

The deal will also see BT continue to show the US sports currently shown on ESPN America, which includes college basketball, college football and Nascar racing.

Ross Hair, ESPN's managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: "We could not be more proud of the TV channels built and nurtured by our talented team over the past four years.

"The value of that hard work is reflected in this deal with BT and the continuation of ESPN on television screens across the UK and Ireland."

The deal does not include ESPN Classic, which will be wound down.

Will we get to keep the team that do ESPN's rugby broadcasting at the moment then??

yappysnap wrote:Will we get to keep the team that do ESPN's rugby broadcasting at the moment then??

Probably.

As long as they don't try to charge separately from existing Virgin Media deal, I don't fancy paying yet another subsciption.

MacKnocked-on wrote:As long as they don't try to charge separately from existing Virgin Media deal, I don't fancy paying yet another subsciption.

Do you expect bt to give it free to virgin customers? Not the best of business ideas.

nathan, ESPN chanels mentioned are part of the larger packages from Virgin and presumably take a fat fee from that. BT are building their own tv business on platforms they control so it remains to be seen if they come to a deal with Virgin. Like MacKnocked-on, I get ESPN through Virgin and will be sad to lose it. Will not be paying yet more out (can't afford what I've got) so that'll be that.

So are BT not going to do their deal with the PRL? The £150 million deal???

This will save them a lot of cash.

maestegmafia wrote:So are BT not going to do their deal with the PRL? The £150 million deal???

This will save them a lot of cash.

Yes that's right genius. They've brought a channel so now have lost all interest in putting any content on it. Plus the deal is already done.

I just want to know where I can watch the rugby.
I'm a sky subscriber. They currently show 1 prem game on w/e and the super rugby stuff.
When ESPN got the premiership contract to Show 2 games per weekend I added that package.

But recently they have been bumping 1 premiership game to ESPN classic due to the football (for which I refuse to pay extra for) - therefore I'm happy they are axing classic.

For the deal with BT for the premiership - are they still sharing matches with Sky or do they have exclusive coverage?

Call it BT or ESPN I will go with whatever platform shows the most games.
But BT would be making a mistake if they didnt offer their new channel to users of Sky or VirginMedia.

Looking into my crystal ball here but I imagine what will happen will be something like what has happened in the past. There will be a channel available on subscription on Sky & Virgin that will have a limited content i.e. not all the games. If you want all the games you will probably have to get BT Vision. This is pure speculation though.

This reminds me of the business scenario in the seventies with IBM and Microsoft. IBM had all the hardware technology and felt at the time that was the future. Microsoft however provided the interface for Joe public and promptly cleaned up as the technology became commoditised.
It looks like BT are not going to make the same mistake. They have ground to make up on Sky but with their infrastructure and financial clout, it won't take long. Personally it would be a good thing to reduce the Murdoch empire.....

BT are in direct competition with Sky so I can't see any aimicable sharing deals.

Both want to offer TV, Internet and Phone services to the public.

Sky seem very relaxed about the situation.

maestegmafia wrote:BT are in direct competition with Sky so I can't see any aimicable sharing deals.

Both want to offer TV, Internet and Phone services to the public.

Sky seem very relaxed about the situation.

What do they need to share?

propdavid_london wrote:I just want to know where I can watch the rugby.
I'm a sky subscriber. They currently show 1 prem game on w/e and the super rugby stuff.
When ESPN got the premiership contract to Show 2 games per weekend I added that package.

But recently they have been bumping 1 premiership game to ESPN classic due to the football (for which I refuse to pay extra for) - therefore I'm happy they are axing classic.

For the deal with BT for the premiership - are they still sharing matches with Sky or do they have exclusive coverage?

Call it BT or ESPN I will go with whatever platform shows the most games.
But BT would be making a mistake if they didnt offer their new channel to users of Sky or VirginMedia.

Currently - Sky and ESPN share the rights to the Premiership while Sky pay ERC a pittance for exclusive rights to European games. BTVision have contracts with ESPN and Sky to show ESPN (not classic) and SkySports 1&2. ESPN have a deal wit hSky to show their channels on the Sky platform. Virgin have deals with ESPN and Sky.

Next Season - BTVision have bought exclusive rights to AP games. Sky still have ERC games. BTVision have bought ESPN and will inherit their contracts to show content on Virgin and Sky. BTVision and Sky still have a contract for SKySports 1 & 2 to be shown on BTVision.

What Rugby Can I wastch Next Season - To watch every available match you will need both BTVision and Sky as you can guarantee that at least some matches will be on exclusive channels. If you want just one subscription you need to decide what gives you what you want and is best value:
Sky - All ERC and most AP televised games
BTVision - Most ERC and all AP televised games
VirginMedia - Most ERC and Most AP televisied games

In the end whichever platform you have will still give plenty of matches.

Toadfish wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:BT are in direct competition with Sky so I can't see any aimicable sharing deals.

Both want to offer TV, Internet and Phone services to the public.

Sky seem very relaxed about the situation.

What do they need to share?

The lads above and myself, like many others were wondering a), whether our current Cable/Sat providers will still have ESPN as an option as they currently do. B) whether this is going to cost a fortune.

The whole concept of BT vision wanting sport is to entice customers away from sky nothing to do with providing a better service.

LondonTiger wrote:

propdavid_london wrote:I just want to know where I can watch the rugby.
I'm a sky subscriber. They currently show 1 prem game on w/e and the super rugby stuff.
When ESPN got the premiership contract to Show 2 games per weekend I added that package.

But recently they have been bumping 1 premiership game to ESPN classic due to the football (for which I refuse to pay extra for) - therefore I'm happy they are axing classic.

For the deal with BT for the premiership - are they still sharing matches with Sky or do they have exclusive coverage?

Call it BT or ESPN I will go with whatever platform shows the most games.
But BT would be making a mistake if they didnt offer their new channel to users of Sky or VirginMedia.

Currently - Sky and ESPN share the rights to the Premiership while Sky pay ERC a pittance for exclusive rights to European games. BTVision have contracts with ESPN and Sky to show ESPN (not classic) and SkySports 1&2. ESPN have a deal wit hSky to show their channels on the Sky platform. Virgin have deals with ESPN and Sky.

Next Season - BTVision have bought exclusive rights to AP games. Sky still have ERC games. BTVision have bought ESPN and will inherit their contracts to show content on Virgin and Sky. BTVision and Sky still have a contract for SKySports 1 & 2 to be shown on BTVision.

What Rugby Can I wastch Next Season - To watch every available match you will need both BTVision and Sky as you can guarantee that at least some matches will be on exclusive channels. If you want just one subscription you need to decide what gives you what you want and is best value:
Sky - All ERC and most AP televised games
BTVision - Most ERC and all AP televised games
VirginMedia - Most ERC and Most AP televisied games

In the end whichever platform you have will still give plenty of matches.

Is that your opinion or fact...???

If it is fact please can you post some reference links, this affects us all and we want to know what is happening in advance so we can have a decent deal and not get ripped off.

I don't really want to change my provider from one to another unless I have to and certainly not at an increased cost.

A mix of fact and moderately intelligent supposition. There is no certainty right now as:

VirginMedia have new owners
ESPN have new owners
Sky have refused to add any extra channels to their current sports offer. (Based on a discussion with a BSkyB Executive I went to school with).

I would advise everyone to wait till mid-summer before deciding what platform they wish to use. Sadly whichever way it goes the various media providers will all be looking to take more dosh from us.

Football will be the main battleground, which is in our favour.

maestegmafia wrote:

Toadfish wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:BT are in direct competition with Sky so I can't see any aimicable sharing deals.

Both want to offer TV, Internet and Phone services to the public.

Sky seem very relaxed about the situation.

What do they need to share?

The lads above and myself, like many others were wondering a), whether our current Cable/Sat providers will still have ESPN as an option as they currently do. B) whether this is going to cost a fortune.

The whole concept of BT vision wanting sport is to entice customers away from sky nothing to do with providing a better service.

Sorry I must have missed those points when what you actually said was, "BT are in direct competition with Sky so I can't see any aimicable sharing deals". Where the hell you got your bit about 'nothing to do with providing a better service' god only knows.

Too many unknowns at the moment but what you can see now is that there are three very strong players in the market and generally increased competition means more competetive pricing for the consumer.

I don't suppose anyone would offer me an "all the rugby you want to watch and precisely none of that football nonsense" package at a knock-down price? I would happily pay more for the rugby but I object to lining footballers' pockets for the right to watch something I don't want to watch.

Poorfour wrote:I don't suppose anyone would offer me an "all the rugby you want to watch and precisely none of that football nonsense" package at a knock-down price? I would happily pay more for the rugby but I object to lining footballers' pockets for the right to watch something I don't want to watch.

If they chucked cricket on to that channel that would suit me down to the ground! Unfortunately from what I have heard anecdotally from people working at SKY the revenue from footy pretty much funds their investment in other sports. On a standalone basis as they say most others would be running at a loss so you might find this new channel is much more expensive!

BT promises its service will be available on Freeview, Virgin and Sky, and although no pricing has been outlined, costs are likely to start at about £10 a month

BT customers willing to take them as part of a larger package of TV, broadband and telephony will be offered heavy discounts.

The move aims to bolster the appeal of the BT Vision TV service, while in turn bringing more customers to BT's telecoms and fibre optic broadband services.

BT Vision has also joined forces with YouView, launching its own BT Vision content on top of the standard on-demand, internet TV offering from YouView.

BT Vision is also offering a free YouView box, worth £299, to customers who sign-up to BT Infinity, the company's fibre optic broadband service.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/blog/2013/jan/10/bt-sky-sports-coverage

http://www.whathifi.com/news/bt-vision-plans-three-sports-tv-channels-and-pay-per-view-for-premier-league-football

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2012/jun/13/premier-league-strikes-gold-bt

I fully intend to sign up to BT when it starts and get rid of Sky Sports.

Whilst I love watching ERC rugby, the reality is that I rarely get the chance to sit down and watch all the games over the course of a weekend. Whereas, with the Jeff games spread out I tend to be able to watch. So my view is get BT and go down the pub for any big rugby games played in the ERC. I'd find it very hard to believe that the cost of BT Sports will be more than I currently pay to Sky and ESPN.

My understanding is that BT Sports will be a stand alone channel(s) that any Virgin or Sky customer will be able to subscribe to, as in the exact way they can with ESPN at the moment. You don't need Sky Sports to have ESPN on Sky, but you do get a discount if you have both and I'm sure the same will happen come July.

LondonTiger wrote:A mix of fact and moderately intelligent supposition. There is no certainty right now as:

VirginMedia have new owners
ESPN have new owners
Sky have refused to add any extra channels to their current sports offer. (Based on a discussion with a BSkyB Executive I went to school with).

I would advise everyone to wait till mid-summer before deciding what platform they wish to use. Sadly whichever way it goes the various media providers will all be looking to take more dosh from us.

Football will be the main battleground, which is in our favour.

Well that £150m investment to "own English rugby" has to come from somewhere...!

Maesteg, from BT's very very deep pockets.....I actually think they got the AP cheaply given the costs of football.
BT have some good broadband deals at the moment and throw in the rugby package could be tempting as I refuse to have Sky.

Basically, competition means the consumer pays 3 times for the product...and has to fund a hold dick load of soccer cash for the pleasure of doing so.

Bring back monopolies.

The Sky and BT broadband offers are, for many of us, a waste of time because the old infrastructure it is delivered through means pathetic bandwidth. For instance, I get 15+Mbit through Virgin but BT can't provide more than 2 to 2.5 Mbit if I'm lucky and that's in Leeds so what it must be like out in the stix is anybody's guess.

aitchw wrote:nathan, ESPN chanels mentioned are part of the larger packages from Virgin and presumably take a fat fee from that. BT are building their own tv business on platforms they control so it remains to be seen if they come to a deal with Virgin. Like MacKnocked-on, I get ESPN through Virgin and will be sad to lose it. Will not be paying yet more out (can't afford what I've got) so that'll be that.

BT Sports channels will be available on the sky and virgin platform in the same was as the current ESPN channel is.

Toohey wrote:Looking into my crystal ball here but I imagine what will happen will be something like what has happened in the past. There will be a channel available on subscription on Sky & Virgin that will have a limited content i.e. not all the games. If you want all the games you will probably have to get BT Vision. This is pure speculation though.

very doubtful, Sky were forced to allow virgin to show their sky sports channels and not at the sky high price sky were asking for. If there being forced to do things like this i'm fairly happy it's all being regulated fairly tightly.

aitchw wrote:The Sky and BT broadband offers are, for many of us, a waste of time because the old infrastructure it is delivered through means pathetic bandwidth. For instance, I get 15+Mbit through Virgin but BT can't provide more than 2 to 2.5 Mbit if I'm lucky and that's in Leeds so what it must be like out in the stix is anybody's guess.

I'm out in the "stix" and i can get 40mb fibre, having said that our village is one of the biggest in europe.

I think i'll stick with my tv provider, costs £8 per month

nathan wrote:

Toohey wrote:Looking into my crystal ball here but I imagine what will happen will be something like what has happened in the past. There will be a channel available on subscription on Sky & Virgin that will have a limited content i.e. not all the games. If you want all the games you will probably have to get BT Vision. This is pure speculation though.

very doubtful, Sky were forced to allow virgin to show their sky sports channels and not at the sky high price sky were asking for. If there being forced to do things like this i'm fairly happy it's all being regulated fairly tightly.

That's true but I believe Sky only released some of their sports channels (1&2 I think?) giving them the option to show some events on the other channels. They were also forced to release Sky 1 and then promptly launched Sky Atlantic and moved their premium programs to that channel. Whatever happens I imagine there will have to be something to encourage people onto BT's platform.

Toohey wrote:

nathan wrote:

Toohey wrote:Looking into my crystal ball here but I imagine what will happen will be something like what has happened in the past. There will be a channel available on subscription on Sky & Virgin that will have a limited content i.e. not all the games. If you want all the games you will probably have to get BT Vision. This is pure speculation though.

very doubtful, Sky were forced to allow virgin to show their sky sports channels and not at the sky high price sky were asking for. If there being forced to do things like this i'm fairly happy it's all being regulated fairly tightly.

That's true but I believe Sky only released some of their sports channels (1&2 I think?) giving them the option to show some events on the other channels. They were also forced to release Sky 1 and then promptly launched Sky Atlantic and moved their premium programs to that channel. Whatever happens I imagine there will have to be something to encourage people onto BT's platform.

likely to be bundle deals with broadband and phone.

nathan wrote:

Toohey wrote:

nathan wrote:

Toohey wrote:Looking into my crystal ball here but I imagine what will happen will be something like what has happened in the past. There will be a channel available on subscription on Sky & Virgin that will have a limited content i.e. not all the games. If you want all the games you will probably have to get BT Vision. This is pure speculation though.

very doubtful, Sky were forced to allow virgin to show their sky sports channels and not at the sky high price sky were asking for. If there being forced to do things like this i'm fairly happy it's all being regulated fairly tightly.

That's true but I believe Sky only released some of their sports channels (1&2 I think?) giving them the option to show some events on the other channels. They were also forced to release Sky 1 and then promptly launched Sky Atlantic and moved their premium programs to that channel. Whatever happens I imagine there will have to be something to encourage people onto BT's platform.

likely to be bundle deals with broadband and phone.

No doubt that will be part of it but if the rumours are true that access through sky/virgin will be on a similar level as ESPN (at about £10 per month) they are going to need a bigger incentive to get people to switch.

Toohey wrote:

nathan wrote:

Toohey wrote:

nathan wrote:

Toohey wrote:Looking into my crystal ball here but I imagine what will happen will be something like what has happened in the past. There will be a channel available on subscription on Sky & Virgin that will have a limited content i.e. not all the games. If you want all the games you will probably have to get BT Vision. This is pure speculation though.

very doubtful, Sky were forced to allow virgin to show their sky sports channels and not at the sky high price sky were asking for. If there being forced to do things like this i'm fairly happy it's all being regulated fairly tightly.

That's true but I believe Sky only released some of their sports channels (1&2 I think?) giving them the option to show some events on the other channels. They were also forced to release Sky 1 and then promptly launched Sky Atlantic and moved their premium programs to that channel. Whatever happens I imagine there will have to be something to encourage people onto BT's platform.

likely to be bundle deals with broadband and phone.

No doubt that will be part of it but if the rumours are true that access through sky/virgin will be on a similar level as ESPN (at about £10 per month) they are going to need a bigger incentive to get people to switch.

true, in the long run i think this could be a good thing, virgin have never really competed in the sports segment so i think it's good that BT are. drive a bit of competition.

nathan wrote:

Toohey wrote:Looking into my crystal ball here but I imagine what will happen will be something like what has happened in the past. There will be a channel available on subscription on Sky & Virgin that will have a limited content i.e. not all the games. If you want all the games you will probably have to get BT Vision. This is pure speculation though.

very doubtful, Sky were forced to allow virgin to show their sky sports channels and not at the sky high price sky were asking for. If there being forced to do things like this i'm fairly happy it's all being regulated fairly tightly.

Yeah ideally we'd have a regulated market with a core provider and extra services on top at limited prices. Trouble is the sports authorities themselves arent exactly interested in keeping prices down, sole providers etc.
We are going to increasingly see matches delivered on PPV or what amount PPV basis, especially the regular terrestrial digital service gets increasingly squeezed for bandwith in favour of mobile.
I moved recently and ditched my Virgin + ESPN subscription which was costing a fortune for a few Jeff games, endless german league soccer and 1980s basketball. Maybe if I could pay a small flat fee and reasonable prices for specific games Id consider signing up to a new provider.

Its a pity you cant stream games free through dubious websites *cough*

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

nathan wrote:

Toohey wrote:Looking into my crystal ball here but I imagine what will happen will be something like what has happened in the past. There will be a channel available on subscription on Sky & Virgin that will have a limited content i.e. not all the games. If you want all the games you will probably have to get BT Vision. This is pure speculation though.

very doubtful, Sky were forced to allow virgin to show their sky sports channels and not at the sky high price sky were asking for. If there being forced to do things like this i'm fairly happy it's all being regulated fairly tightly.

Yeah ideally we'd have a regulated market with a core provider and extra services on top at limited prices. Trouble is the sports authorities themselves arent exactly interested in keeping prices down, sole providers etc.
We are going to increasingly see matches delivered on PPV or what amount PPV basis, especially the regular terrestrial digital service gets increasingly squeezed for bandwith in favour of mobile.
I moved recently and ditched my Virgin + ESPN subscription which was costing a fortune for a few Jeff games, endless german league soccer and 1980s basketball. Maybe if I could pay a small flat fee and reasonable prices for specific games Id consider signing up to a new provider.

Its a pity you cant stream games free through dubious websites *cough*

or get dodgy sky *cough*

So reading what most of you are saying I have no need to change from Sky to watch rugby or Soccer next year, I will be able to do it on my current contract.

That makes no sense.

No one would switch to BT unless they were considerably cheaper and cheaper is no good for business, especially when you have promised £1B to own football and rugby and your currently on a downward turn financially.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/9669024/Buying-sports-rights-is-winner-for-BT-Vision.html

maestegmafia wrote:So reading what most of you are saying I have no need to change from Sky to watch rugby or Soccer next year, I will be able to do it on my current contract.

That makes no sense.

No one would switch to BT unless they were considerably cheaper and cheaper is no good for business, especially when you have promised £1B to own football and rugby and your currently on a downward turn financially.

Maes, of course it makes sense. If the BT sport channel cost £6 per month to make they could sell it to Sky/Virgin for £10 per month and make £4 per month. If BT sold the channel at £8 per month as part of a bt phone and broadband deal which they also made £2 per month on each they make a total of £6 per month instead of the £4. They would also have the customer tied into a contract and as they own the rights to the football and rugby, they get to call the shots with sky and virgin which gives them a much stronger position.