Sky HD+ESPN+Setanta 101€??

snaps

Just got a quote for Sky HD with Sports/ESPN & Setanta.......€101 a month????

Christ i am actually stunned!!!

And people are paying this??

lord lucan

I have Sky +HD with Sky World and Family Pack(Sports and Movies) and ESPN. That comes to €100 even. I'm gonna start stripping it down next month,ESPN is going to go as is Sky Sports and the Kids pack. It's mad money,and yes,i'm worse for paying it,and i can't justify the money i spend on it.

My 12 months with HD is up in December and then i'm most likely gonna get rid of Sky completely.

danbohan

lord lucan wrote: »

I have Sky +HD with Sky World and Family Pack(Sports and Movies) and ESPN. That comes to €100 even. I'm gonna start stripping it down next month,ESPN is going to go as is Sky Sports and the Kids pack. It's mad money,and yes,i'm worse for paying it,and i can't justify the money i spend on it.

My 12 months with HD is up in December and then i'm most likely gonna get rid of Sky completely.

considering without setanta its £55 for same sky package in uk , are we been ripped off or what !

ch750536

danbohan wrote: »

considering without setanta its £55 for same sky package in uk , are we been ripped off or what !

If you choose to pay it they got the pricing just right.

denis1501

Sky Italia - Any 2 mixes plus all the football and HD - €29 a month.
Sky Italia - Any 2 mixes plus the Sports channels and HD - €29 a month.
Sky Germany - All the mixes plus Sports and HD - €32.90 a month

I think you can see the point I'm making.

snaps

i havent been a sky customer for many many years, I can see why! I think that figure i got was a new customer price so its actually more!

Watty mentioned in another post of mine that 80% of the population has pay tv, I am actually stunned. There is suppossed to be a reccesion on.......well it doesnt seem like it!

kaisersose77

seems like people don't even realise how much there paying if you have a look at this thread in the soccer forum

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055959670

especially this post!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66758803&postcount=18

snaps

kaisersose77 wrote: »

seems like people don't even realise how much there paying if you have a look at this thread in the soccer forum

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055959670

especially this post!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66758803&postcount=18

So funny, lots of people reckon they are only paying 300-400€ a year just for sky sports! Then your man says he has sky sports HD, ESPN, Setanta which costs 300€ a year!!!!!

ftakeith

snaps wrote: »

So funny, lots of people reckon they are only paying 300-400€ a year just for sky sports! Then your man says he has sky sports HD, ESPN, Setanta which costs 300€ a year!!!!!

but persons in ireland should just go for Sky sports as the best English premiership live football is on sky and heinken cup rugby

the following is on freesat and an outdoor tv aerial, the english fa cup is on itv1, the english league cup is on bbc1, scottish fa cup/league cup is on bbctv scotland, champions league is on tv3, rte2, itv1, the magners league rugby will be mostly fta next season

I know a neighbour who wanted to cut costs so he has freesat connected to 2 tvs and skyhd with sky sports in the third room, and he has an outdoor tv aerial connected to all 3 tvs, he is a football fan and does not sky sports from the whole of may, june, july and august
he has one sky pack and then sky sports for the remaining 8 months

I have freesat, outdoor tv aerial and fta tv euro motorised system, the only thing I don't have is live english premiership but I get mostly everything for a once off fee

mossym

snaps wrote: »

Then your man says he has sky sports HD, ESPN, Setanta which costs 300€ a year!!!!!

out of the hundred quoted above though remove the cost of the non sports packages, i.e. if you got rid of the sports channels and kept sky hd how much would it cost you?

anyway, that quote is way high, i had all three up till this season and my bill was 30 euros cheaper than that, that's sky HD, sky sports, ESPN, and Setanta. i'm betting that is for sky works with the extra add ons.

and my bill was a hell of a lot cheaper than what it would have cost me to go to the pub for the matches i watch, 5-6 matches a week, * 10 quid for a couple of pints each match, I'd have been paying 250 euros a month to my local and have a gut to match

HurlyBurly

ESPN is a rip off. Got rid of it recently and saves me €12 or so a month. Nothing on it.

Setanta was handy for magners league but that's now gone to tg4/rte so there's no need for Setanta either.

HD - 15 euro a month to see a clearer picture on some channels... no thanks, I think i'll just live with my perfectly fine current setup.

But they'll still get me with this new 7 or 8% increase they're bringing in.

Barack Obama

HurlyBurly wrote: »

ESPN is a rip off. Got rid of it recently and saves me €12 or so a month. Nothing on it.

Setanta was handy for magners league but that's now gone to tg4/rte so there's no need for Setanta either.

HD - 15 euro a month to see a clearer picture on some channels... no thanks, I think i'll just live with my perfectly fine current setup.

But they'll still get me with this new 7 or 8% increase they're bringing in.

It's all about opinions I guess...

ESPN for me is excellent, particularly the SPL coverage and baseball coverage on ESPN America. Also, they now have 2 HD channels.

As for not paying €15 per month for HD channels - how much did you pay for your lovely HDTV?

There are other ways of getting HD without paying Sky. You can get plenty for free with a UK freewiew card.

HurlyBurly

Yep ESPN is a matter of opinion, had it for a year, watched a bit of the Monday night premiership and the occassional college football action but couldn't really justify the cost vs. how much I watch on it anymore. Very little of it is mainstream sport in my view.

As for HD, my 60" TV displays a top notch picture and I'm more than happy with it. I don't see the value in spending 15quid a month extra to see a sharper picture on a handful of channels. The Sky Sports HD is all I'd be into if I was - don't see the value in any of the others.

In these recessionary times it's hard to justify the full whack of SKY subscriptions when the missus and kids have to be looked after too.

mossym

HurlyBurly wrote: »

As for HD, my 60" TV displays a top notch picture and I'm more than happy with it. I don't see the value in spending 15quid a month extra to see a sharper picture on a handful of channels. The Sky Sports HD is all I'd be into if I was - don't see the value in any of the others.

on a 110" screen it's worth the 15 quid, saves sports looking like an early demo of pacman on a 32*32 pixel screen

horses for courses

snaps

yes after you have been paying a sub and you threaten to cancel you'll get a reduced sub.

3 mixes+Sky sports+ESPN+HD pack is 85€ on its own!

Setanta seems to be 16€ a month (Not worth that at all)

mossym

also, setanta will have first choice of magners league games the coming season, tg4 are only going to be showing a choice from the rest of the games. Hardly an ideal situation at all...

mossym

snaps wrote: »

yes after you have been paying a sub and you threaten to cancel you'll get a reduced sub.

3 mixes+Sky sports+ESPN+HD pack is 85€ on its own!

Setanta seems to be 16€ a month (Not worth that at all)

how much is 3 mixes + hd pack.? take that from the 85, multiply by 12 then see if the guy saying he paid 300 a year for sports is right. He might be a bit low, but not by much

steph1

I had the full Sky package including movies and sport.
I contacted them last month to take off the movies. I collect videos and dvds and have plenty to watch plus the same films seem to be on for weeks at a time. I also got them to take off the music channels and the kids channels as I have no use for them. So my monthly sub is down from 79 to 48. And I probably could reduce this even further.
Its crazy to be paying these prices. Only I love my sport those channels would be gone too.
I have a free to air for the rest of the house - kitchen and bedroom and there are plenty of channels available on that. A lot of people get rid of the sports channels for the summer months and reactivate them when the footy starts again in August.
Its only when you sit down and work out what you are spending (or wasting) that it really hits home. We really are being ripped off big time.

MisterAnarchy

mossym wrote: »

how much is 3 mixes + hd pack.? take that from the 85, multiply by 12 then see if the guy saying he paid 300 a year for sports is right. He might be a bit low, but not by much

You are way out .
On satellite ,a 1 mix pack and Sky Sports 1 is 38 euro per month (Add an extra 16 for Sky Sports 2-4)
ESPN is an extra 12 euro per month ,HD an extra 15 and Setanta an extra 16.99 but we will say he gets it at the 5 euro per month special offer.
So thats 840 per year for the bare minimum ,thats nearly 3 times 300 euro.
Its over 1000 euro if you have Sky Sports 1-4 .
Its mad money.

Barack Obama

mossym wrote: »

also, setanta will have first choice of magners league games the coming season, tg4 are only going to be showing a choice from the rest of the games. Hardly an ideal situation at all...

Don't forget - you can also get magners league on S4C with English commentary on the red button. Normally only one game a weekend but you might get lucky if an Irish team is playing a Welsh one

mossym

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

You are way out .
On satellite ,a 1 mix pack and Sky Sports 1 is 38 euro per month (Add an extra 16 for Sky Sports 2-4)
ESPN is an extra 12 euro per month ,HD an extra 15 and Setanta an extra 16.99 but we will say he gets it at the 5 euro per month special offer.
So thats 840 per year for the bare minimum ,thats nearly 3 times 300 euro.
Its over 1000 euro if you have Sky Sports 1-4 .
Its mad money.

again, you are adding in the cost of the non sport channels. the post referenced to said his sports was costing him 300. for example, if i got rid of all sports my wife would still want the sky 2 mix pack. how do you add that into the cost of getting sports?

by your maths then if he gets it at the bare minimum, he pays 16 on top of a sub for sky sports 1 (enough for soccer) 5 for setanta, 12 for espn

396 euros a year(for Sports, which is what the guy said)

there is no way of telling from the quoted post if he was referring to his whole sky sub or the sports extras. so snaps post of
So funny, lots of people reckon they are only paying 300-400€ a year just for sky sports!

is pretty true, cause if you look at just the cost of sky sports, and not everything else, they're not far off with 400, depending on how many of the sky sports channels they have


Not saying at all that sky isn't too expensive, just pointing out there are quite a few very liberal assumptions being taken in this thread. I made another one above, but in the efforts of proving a point

of course, if you get a 1 mix pack just so you can get sky sports and never watch anything but sports, then you could argue the whole cost is for sky sports. I don't know many that do that though

Barack Obama

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

You are way out .
On satellite ,a 1 mix pack and Sky Sports 1 is 38 euro per month (Add an extra 16 for Sky Sports 2-4)
ESPN is an extra 12 euro per month ,HD an extra 15 and Setanta an extra 16.99 but we will say he gets it at the 5 euro per month special offer.
So thats 840 per year for the bare minimum ,thats nearly 3 times 300 euro.
Its over 1000 euro if you have Sky Sports 1-4 .
Its mad money.

You're right - it's just feckin crazy.

I wonder what the £ to Euro charging differences are with Sky...

mossym

Barack Obama wrote: »

Don't forget - you can also get magners league on S4C with English commentary on the red button. Normally only one game a weekend but you might get lucky if an Irish team is playing a Welsh one

very true, and you can have great fun trying to decipher welsh..:)

Barack Obama

HurlyBurly wrote: »

Yep ESPN is a matter of opinion, had it for a year, watched a bit of the Monday night premiership and the occassional college football action but couldn't really justify the cost vs. how much I watch on it anymore. Very little of it is mainstream sport in my view.

As for HD, my 60" TV displays a top notch picture and I'm more than happy with it. I don't see the value in spending 15quid a month extra to see a sharper picture on a handful of channels. The Sky Sports HD is all I'd be into if I was - don't see the value in any of the others.

In these recessionary times it's hard to justify the full whack of SKY subscriptions when the missus and kids have to be looked after too.

Not sure how you can describe SD as top notch mate, but there are other sources of HD material for free that will give you full enjoyment from your HD investment.

snaps

Barack Obama wrote: »

You're right - it's just feckin crazy.

I wonder what the £ to Euro charging differences are with Sky...

For a current new subscriber:

Sky sports pack with 3 mixes+ESPN+HD
€85 in Ireland
£57 in UK, Roughly €69

It will be very interesting to see what the increases will be on the 1st September.

mikeym

mossym wrote: »

also, setanta will have first choice of magners league games the coming season, tg4 are only going to be showing a choice from the rest of the games. Hardly an ideal situation at all...

Thought Rte and Tg4 have the rights now???

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2010/0609/magnersleague_tv.html


Sky have also announced their live televised matches and it looks huge.

mossym

They have rights, but not exclusive rights. Setanta still have first call on any game. Tg4 can then show any other game they want, or so said the head of TG4 on radio recently

Chasing Dreams

Sky Sports is showing (something around) 104 live Premier League matches next season, I believe. So, I'd recommend keeping that if you love football.

I don't really think Setanta is any good for football, at least not since their financial problems. I'm not sure if they have many matches this season, but last year they were mainly restricted to F.A. Cup matches. Also, their analysis is terrible -- I can't stand Pat Dolan, and half the time is spent updating us on other matches.

I personally love ESPN. It's great if you're a fan of some foreign leagues such as the Italian and German leagues. They also have highlights for the Russian and Portuguese leagues. I also enjoy Talk of the Terrace.

Sky are best for Premier League and La Liga matches. They also have a good variety of options, as in, they cover most sports, so you'll always find something to suit your taste.

I would not recommend HD if you're looking to save money. It's not worth, most people wouldn't even notice the difference. Sky+ is amazing though. Get that, great investment.

mossym

Chasing Dreams wrote: »

I would not recommend HD if you're looking to save money. It's not worth, most people wouldn't even notice the difference.

that's a pretty sweeping statment, and dependant on screen size (+ to a lesser extent seating distance) is both absolutely true yet also very inaccurate.

Chasing Dreams

mossym wrote: »

that's a pretty sweeping statment, and dependant on screen size (+ to a lesser extent seating distance) is both absolutely true yet also very inaccurate.

Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's great when you have the money, but when you're trying to cut your costs, it's really a needless extra.

That's just my two cents though.

mossym

Chasing Dreams wrote: »

Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's great when you have the money, but when you're trying to cut your costs, it's really a needless extra.

That's just my two cents though.

that's true. most people would notice the difference on a screen big enough, but whether that difference is enough is a different matter

mikeym

mossym wrote: »

They have rights, but not exclusive rights. Setanta still have first call on any game. Tg4 can then show any other game they want, or so said the head of TG4 on radio recently

Heres another link that says setanta dont have the rights to the 2010/2011 season.

http://www.irishrugby.ie/6855_21152.php

The Magners League will be available on RTE and TG4 as well as a number of UK stations from next season

The deal, which is in place until 2013/14 season, will see an expansion of live broadcasts of Magners League games into Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Most regular season home matches involving Leinster, Munster and Connacht will be available free-to-air in Ireland on either RTE or TG4 with scheduled kick-offs mostly of Friday or Saturday evenings.
BBC Northern Ireland will focus on Ulster home games, with Friday evening as the preferred kick-off time, while Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors games will be covered by BBC ALBA.
BBC Wales and S4C continue with their established Friday and Saturday evening timeslots, with most of their games scheduled for those times.

All broadcasters will enjoy reciprocal feeds, so supporters can follow their local teams for vital away games, and all have agreed to provide live coverage of any end of season play-off matches that fall within their territories.
In welcoming the news, David Jordan, Tournament Director of the Magners League, said: "It is very good news that we now have strong broadcast partners in the UK and Ireland - that increases access for fans of the Magners League to one of the most competitive tournaments with some of the best known players in world rugby.
"Our new broadcasters, BBC ALBA, BBC Northern Ireland, RTE and TG4, compliment our existing partners, BBC Wales and S4C, and will provide unparalleled coverage of Magners League games in the coming season."
John Hussey, Chairman of Celtic Rugby and IRFU Junior Vice President, commented: "This is a very welcome development for the Magners League as a growing competition.
"With such strong and established terrestrial sports broadcasters committing themselves to the league, it can only continue the development of the competition and is an example of the balance of free-to-air coverage that is needed to support the game in the competing unions."

HOW TO WATCH MAGNERS LEAGUE GAMES NEXT SEASON -
BBC ALBA
Available UK-wide on Sky channel 168 and Freesat 110. It is available streamed and on 7-day catch-up on iPlayer.
BBC ONE Northern Ireland
Virgin channel 863, Sky 973.
BBC TWO Northern Ireland
Sky channel 992
Freeview BBC 1 NI & BBC 2 NI only available in Northern Ireland.
BBC TWO Wales
In Wales on Freeview channel 2, digital satellite (Sky and Freesat) 102, and Virgin 102.
Outside Wales via digital satellite on channel 991.
RTE
Only available on the island of Ireland.
S4C
In Wales on Sky channel 104, Freeview 4, Virgin 167, Freesat 104.
In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. on Sky 134 and Freesat 120.
TG4
Only available on the island of Ireland.

Barack Obama

Chasing Dreams wrote: »

I would not recommend HD if you're looking to save money. It's not worth, most people wouldn't even notice the difference.

Most people wouldn't notice the difference? You're having a laugh! Why not save even more money and go back to a B&W set

Chasing Dreams wrote: »

Sky+ is amazing though. Get that, great investment.

Sky+ is far from *amazing*. It's only one of many pvr options that are available (some for free). Also, if you take the route of paying Sky for their pvr then you do not get access to a lot of channels (HD and SD) then you would otherwise...

Cantona's Collars

You pays your money,you makes your choice-nobody is being forced to pay for subscription television.Sky have the best premier league coverage imo,next season they have 115 live games,ESPN are on a loser I reckon with 23 live games,they're pushing the fact they have the FA cup but thats not enough of an attraction for people to fork out an extra 12.99 a month.Setanta have the usual 3pm Saturday games for the next 3 seasons.On the Magners league, TG4 announced that they are sharing coverage with Setanta.Sky world 73+Setanta 16.99+ESPN 12.99=102.98 per month.A dedicated sports fan will pay that especially if they don't go to the pub to watch games.I pay for Sky and Setanta purely for the football,ESPN didn't justify the cost for the games I'd watch on it.Even so,compared to what other countries are paying for subscriptions we are being truly ripped off!! Despite the cost anyone that tells me FTA is adequate for sports coverage is deluded,especially for premier league coverage-highlights on RTE and BBC is not adequate no matter what people argue.

mossym

mikeym wrote: »

Heres another link that says setanta dont have the rights to the 2010/2011 season.

that's odd. teh head of tg4 was on Matt cooper a few months ago explaining the rights, and he said it was shared with setanta.

all the better if it is true

Barack Obama

zerks wrote: »

You pays your money,you makes your choice-nobody is being forced to pay for subscription television.Sky have the best premier league coverage imo,next season they have 115 live games,ESPN are on a loser I reckon with 23 live games,they're pushing the fact they have the FA cup but thats not enough of an attraction for people to fork out an extra 12.99 a month.Setanta have the usual 3pm Saturday games for the next 3 seasons.On the Magners league, TG4 announced that they are sharing coverage with Setanta.Sky world 73+Setanta 16.99+ESPN 12.99=102.98 per month.A dedicated sports fan will pay that especially if they don't go to the pub to watch games.I pay for Sky and Setanta purely for the football,ESPN didn't justify the cost for the games I'd watch on it.Even so,compared to what other countries are paying for subscriptions we are being truly ripped off!! Despite the cost anyone that tells me FTA is adequate for sports coverage is deluded,especially for premier league coverage-highlights on RTE and BBC is not adequate no matter what people argue.

There's more to sports channels the football mate and that's what some people base their subs on. At least you are deciding on what you will get depending on what you watch (footie).

Cantona's Collars

Thats it,I'm a football fan and the majority of people pay a sub just for that,many cut down the sports sub for the summer.I also enjoy a bit of rugby-looking forward to the tri nations at the weekend.I don't go to pub as much as I used to so the sports subscription is offset by that.I love people that whine about it being so expensive while going through the gdp of a small country in cigarettes and pints then saying they don't watch sport anyway.The recent row about Heineken cup on Sky was ridiculous,politicians spouting on about something they clearly new little about,the money that's paid to clubs and provinces is essential for their success-stop the money and stop the success.Anyway if I had a TD's salary,the price of Sky sports wouldn't worry me (they can probably claim expenses for it anyway):D

MisterAnarchy

zerks wrote: »

.Sky have the best premier league coverage imo,next season they have 115 live games,

Abu Dhabi in the Middle East are showing all 380 matches for a yearly sub of ~90 euro .
Viasat in Norway are showing all 380 matches too .
Sky show 115 matches ,a good few of which involve bum teams ,which Sky are obliged to show at least x times per year.
Foreign providors can show whatever teams they want ,when they want.
Now I'm not saying anyone in their right mind would want to watch 380 matches ,not for a second,especially when half of them will be utter rubbish but it gives a greater choice.
Who in Ireland wants to watch a Super Sunday match involving Birmingham and Stoke ? I'd rather have my chest hair plucked than be subjected to that garbage.

glic83

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Abu Dhabi in the Middle East are showing all 380 matches for a yearly sub of ~90 euro .
Viasat in Norway are showing all 380 matches too .
Sky show 115 matches ,a good few of which involve bum teams ,which Sky are obliged to show at least x times per year.
Foreign providors can show whatever teams they want ,when they want.
Now I'm not saying anyone in their right mind would want to watch 380 matches ,not for a second,especially when half of them will be utter rubbish but it gives a greater choice.
Who in Ireland wants to watch a Super Sunday match involving Birmingham and Stoke ? I'd rather have my chest hair plucked than be subjected to that garbage.

yeah but abu dhabi are broadcasting on 7w and 26e badr 6 so you will need an extremely large dish to pick up them in Ireland,its a pitty as i would have no problem paying 90 euro for that much sport

mikeym

How can setanta be value for money when sky and espn have the pick of the premiership matches. Liverpool and Man City matches are going to be on sundays because of the europa league.

Sat 14 Tottenham v Man City (12.45pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 14th Chelsea v West Bromwich Albion 5:30pm ESPN

Sun 15 Liverpool v Arsenal (4.00pm) Sky Sports

Mon 16 Man Utd v Newcastle (8.00pm) Sky Sports

Setanta haven't announced what their showing yet.

MisterAnarchy

glic83 wrote: »

yeah but abu dhabi are broadcasting on 7w and 26e badr 6 so you will need an extremely large dish to pick up them in Ireland,its a pitty as i would have no problem paying 90 euro for that much sport

Thats true but I was just using that as an example of the lower prices abroad.
We are getting doubly screwed here due to the currency exchange rate and the fact that we are realistically bundled in with the UK for EPL tv rights.
Ireland is a foreign tv market for the EPL (like Holland,Sweden,etc ) so the costs should be less than in the home market but instead we get charged more .
Its a complete rip off.

MisterAnarchy

mikeym wrote: »

Setanta haven't announced what their showing yet.

I heard it will be Birmingham vs Stoke ...:D
Seriously though what exclusive content have Setanta left bar 3pm Saturday matches ,almost everything else they have is fta on BBC or ITV?

glic83

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Thats true but I was just using that as an example of the lower prices abroad.
We are getting doubly screwed here due to the currency exchange rate and the fact that we are realistically bundled in with the UK for EPL tv rights.
Ireland is a foreign tv market for the EPL (like Holland,Sweden,etc ) so the costs should be less than in the home market but instead we get charged more .
Its a complete rip off.

I totally agree with you we do pay way over the odds for tv services now dont even get be started on broadband

snaps

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Thats true but I was just using that as an example of the lower prices abroad.
We are getting doubly screwed here due to the currency exchange rate and the fact that we are realistically bundled in with the UK for EPL tv rights.
Ireland is a foreign tv market for the EPL (like Holland,Sweden,etc ) so the costs should be less than in the home market but instead we get charged more .
Its a complete rip off.

You have a very very good point. And also SKY is a UK business. Pays UK VAT and really doesnt have any thing to do with Ireland apart from a Call centre (If you can call it that) and an instalation network.

If only Setanta had been successfull for Ireland, Sky would have had a competitor.

When you look at the pay setup here it really does look so so corrupt.

What have we done to deserve it?

I wonder actually how much Sky pay for Irish EPL rights? Anyone know?

mossie

mikeym wrote: »

Setanta haven't announced what their showing yet.

It's easy to guess. See what games Man U and Liverpool are playing on Saturdays and Setanta will show those with an odd other game thrown in when they're on Sundays. Last season their coverage must have been 80% those?

HurlyBurly

Eurosport & Eurosport 2 have become my favourite sports channels of late.
Great commentators on all sports.
I think E2 is part of the news package or it was when I got it, which I found very strange.

So if E1 is part of the standard mix, I guess u get a good helping of free sport (non-soccer) .. between RTE2, TG4, S4C, ITV & ITV4, Five, EuroSport

mossym

snaps wrote: »

If only Setanta had been successfull for Ireland, Sky would have had a competitor.

i think we also needed a competitive service provider though, the reason we're so expensive is that service provider and content provider are one and the same

Cantona's Collars

When I said Sky have the best premier league coverage,I deliberately ignored the foreign providers because the ordinary joe soap knows little or nothing about them,to most people sky is football.Personally I'd love the coverage from middle east but thats next to impossible in this country,wonder what sky would say if I offered em 90 euro a year?:D:D Setanta show a good few United games so I'm happy,plus the fiver a month they get from me won't break the bank-not much change from that if you buy 1 pint.ESPN is being made out to be great-23 prem games is poor value for money,they didn't sing that out when promoting the channel.Does anyone subscribe to SKY ITALIA? Saw it mentioned earlier in the thread,seems like great value and has English commentary.I agree that the price we pay in this country is crazy,whoever negotiated deals with sky has a lot to answer for,the excuses for exchange rates,vat etc. are sh1te,anyone with a calculator can see how much over the odds we pay.

Barack Obama

HurlyBurly wrote: »

Eurosport & Eurosport 2 have become my favourite sports channels of late.
Great commentators on all sports.
I think E2 is part of the news package or it was when I got it, which I found very strange.

So if E1 is part of the standard mix, I guess u get a good helping of free sport (non-soccer) .. between RTE2, TG4, S4C, ITV & ITV4, Five, EuroSport

As for Eurosport HD, imaging how good that would look on a 60 inch screen

Minstrel27

zerks wrote: »

ESPN is being made out to be great-23 prem games is poor value for money,they didn't sing that out when promoting the channel.

Not everyone watches sports channels for football. You will also need to remember that ESPN knew exactly what they would have next season before setting up their channel.

Wait for the next time that the rights will be up for grabs. Sky may find themselves having a bit of stiff competition.

Cantona's Collars

Read my post a bit more carefully-I said that to most people sky is football.I watch a variety of sport and pay good money for the privelege.I was just pointing out that ESPN based their marketing using premier league coverage as their flagship product which in reality was the games that Setanta (UK) lost when they went bust.Even so like you said I would welcome competition in the market as hopefully it will make watching sport a bit cheaper.At the risk of sounding sexist just ask a few women their opinion on sky-the usual answer is they wouldn't have it-"nothin but sport on it" is a common answer,I'd rather watch the World Paint Drying Championships than the soaps-but thats just me:) I met one guy who wasn't allowed to even watch Match of the Day yet his girlfriend would watch reality tv 24/7,imagine that poor guy trying to settle down for Super Sunday,bet he enjoyed the world cup!