Sky's exclusive rights.

Cantona's Collars

It seems Sky have exclusive rights to the Ashes for the next 3 years at least-I know cricket won't be of huge interest here in Ireland although we have a few fans on here. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-1314068/Viewers-lose-Ashes-highlights-BBC-hand-Sky-cricket-monopoly
It seems that the FTA broadcasters simply weren't interested in what was offered.If FTA channels sit on their hands and feel they can cherry pick events to suit their schedules who can blame Sky for snapping up the rights to sports events.I know money plays a huge part as the ECB were loathe to losing the money pumped in by Sky.Has a lot of similarities with the Heineken Cup row not being FTA over here.That row really annoyed me listening to a politician moaning about having to pay to watch sport on tv when he can more than afford it.With the current financial climate in Ireland a lot of folk can't afford to go to the pub to watch sport and surely can't afford to go see big events live (check out ticket prices at the AVIVA:eek:) So Sky is their only access to sport despite it's cost.
The sporting bodies have got used to getting large amounts of money from Sky and have based their funding on it-imagine what would happen if that suddenly dried up.The FTA broadcasters can't compete but compound the issue by not even showing interest because an event isn't Primetime viewing.Let them keep their rubbish reality tv 'cos that seems to be where their priorities lie and I'll stick to pay tv for my sport.

Minstrel27

What exactly were the FTA broadcasters offered?

Cantona's Collars

It was the highlights that were offered to BBC and FIVE. Which they felt didn't fit their schedules so millions of viewers are denied the right to see any coverage.The BBC is now under fire for it's staid and tired Match Of The Day coverage so it seems they can't even get highlights right anymore.
Would you rather pay for quality coverage or accept second rate because it's free? (please don't drag up Andy Gray or Jamie Redknapp on Sky). Money talks in sport these days,fact of life,but doesn't help when the FTA broadcasters don't even show interest anymore-competition helps but no good when one side doesn't even compete.

watty

Boycott Sky

mad salary for Footballers will drop

Football will become more sport than Exhibitionism dominated by richest clubs

More Sport will be on FTA TV.

All Sky Sport channels together is less than 2% of viewing
The Most watch Pay TV channel is less than 2%.

If a channel is PayTV, it should be advert free and have more than 2% content you want.

Minstrel27

zerks wrote: »

Would you rather pay for quality coverage or accept second rate because it's free?

You should be asking "Would you rather pay too much for quality coverage". I wont deny that Sky do offer good coverage of events but it is grossly overpriced and a lot of people cannot afford it.

Cantona's Collars

Minstrel27 wrote: »

You should be asking "Would you rather pay too much for quality coverage". I wont deny that Sky do offer good coverage of events but it is grossly overpriced and a lot of people cannot afford it.

I agree it's overpriced especially compared to what they charge in UK.But a basic pack plus sport works out at €2 per day which isn't bad.In an ideal world we'd all get free sport coverage but that's never gona happen.
Sky, no matter what people may think are at the forefront of sport coverage and innovation which other broadcasters fail to match or seem unwilling to do so.

STB

Sheer coincidence: The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications were discussing Sports Rights and Broadcasting in one of the Committee Rooms of the Dail this morning. It was on the Oireachtas website live.

watty

€2 a day is about €700 Euro. That would buy me nearly 30 to 100 DVDs depending on title, many of which could be boxed sets.

It's a total rip off. How Much is TV Licence? How many Hours a Day TV and Radio does RTE produce.

Or since Sky is primarily a UK "broadcaster", how many hours a day TV & Radio does BBC produce.

Remember RTE is 25% viewing and BBC more than 10% viewing here and ALL Skysports + Sky1 is less than 4%!

If you compare viewing UK, similar conclusions. Sky is a parasite that has massively driven up cost of Sports rights due to their excessive charges.

Minstrel27

STB wrote: »

Sheer coincidence: The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications were discussing Sports Rights and Broadcasting in one of the Committee Rooms of the Dail this morning. It was on the Oireachtas website live.

Was there anything interesting said?

Cantona's Collars

Don't buy dvd's anymore-they ended up gathering dust and believe me I have lots of them.Don't smoke so if you compare a subscription to buying ciggies then it's not so bad,I know what I'd rather spend my money on.Don't get me wrong-I'd love free sport but unfortunately the world we live in now means you gotta pay be it Sky or even the foreign providers.
I personally know lots of people that tell me they can't afford Sky no matter how much they'd like it but then smoke 20 a day and order takeaways 3 times a week so €2 a day is reasonable in comparison.Even as we speak Freesat are toying with the idea of offering pay content such as SkySports.

snaps

Perhaps RTE will bid for the Irish rights for the Ashes!!!!!!!! I could only dream of that as I for one only miss Sky UK/Ireland for the cricket as everything else sports wise is available elsewhere, even Darts now can be had on Dutch TV!

Cricket, Rugby, Darts, Snooker has all gone the way of soccer, all money related. Its a real shame, Even Ronnie O sulivan the other night stopped on the last ball of his 147 break in protest for not getting enough money for a 147 break!

I know we are constanly churning up the same old same old regarding Rip off Sky, but generally people are still willing to pay there outrages subscription fees so nothing will be done apart from extra increases (There will be another one in January because of UK VAT increasing)

The only protestors i have heard and seen in action now in this country regarding Rip off sky are the commerical customers, the last price increase to them has gone over the top now and i personally know of about 6 pubs that have dumped sky sports package and now just have a basic domestic sub in place (You dont need a commercial sub for RTE/TV3 etc), as having the sports packages is just not generating the extra revenue to pay for it.

Hopefully Sky will realise that enough is enough here in Ireland and we cant go on paying these rip off prices.

Perhaps for all these ridiculous price increases to commercial customers, they should at least offer pubs an extra match choice say on a saturday afternoon so at least it might intise extra paying customers in through the door? If pubs can show exactly the same as whats available at home, how can that be a revenue generator, i know where i would rather be watching the match, drinking a 1€ can by the fire, instead of paying 4€ for a pint!

evilivor

zerks wrote: »

It seems Sky have exclusive rights to the Ashes for the next 3 years at least-I know cricket won't be of huge interest here in Ireland although we have a few fans on here. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-1314068/Viewers-lose-Ashes-highlights-BBC-hand-Sky-cricket-monopoly
It seems that the FTA broadcasters simply weren't interested in what was offered.If FTA channels sit on their hands and feel they can cherry pick events to suit their schedules who can blame Sky for snapping up the rights to sports events.I know money plays a huge part as the ECB were loathe to losing the money pumped in by Sky.Has a lot of similarities with the Heineken Cup row not being FTA over here.That row really annoyed me listening to a politician moaning about having to pay to watch sport on tv when he can more than afford it.With the current financial climate in Ireland a lot of folk can't afford to go to the pub to watch sport and surely can't afford to go see big events live (check out ticket prices at the AVIVA:eek:) So Sky is their only access to sport despite it's cost.
The sporting bodies have got used to getting large amounts of money from Sky and have based their funding on it-imagine what would happen if that suddenly dried up.The FTA broadcasters can't compete but compound the issue by not even showing interest because an event isn't Primetime viewing.Let them keep their rubbish reality tv 'cos that seems to be where their priorities lie and I'll stick to pay tv for my sport.

That's such a pity. Cricket needs all the help it can get these days and the more coverage for free the better.

Channel 4's coverage of the Ashes did so much to bring people to the game with their brilliant live coverage of what turned out to be a fantastic series, then all that goodwill was squandered with the decision to go with Sky.

Cantona's Collars

Back in the day RTE used to show delayed coverage of Premier League-3.30pm on a Saturday,I used to avoid tv and radio until kickoff and watched the games as-live.There was very little live football on then,now we have it every day.Love or hate Sky you have to admit they do provide for just about every sports fan-Snaps made a good point about having a 'pub only' selection of games on at weekends,but the FA have that avenue pretty much closed off.

snaps

evilivor wrote: »

That's such a pity. Cricket needs all the help it can get these days and the more coverage for free the better.

Channel 4's coverage of the Ashes did so much to bring people to the game with their brilliant live coverage of what turned out to be a fantastic series, then all that goodwill was squandered with the decision to go with Sky.

Channel fives coverage isnt too bad. What with the new limited overs matches, cricket has generated more publicity, what with speeding the game up. Shame though its all on pay TV.

watty

zerks wrote: »

... then it's not so bad,I know what I'd rather spend my money on.Don't get me wrong-I'd love free sport but unfortunately the world we live in now means you gotta pay be it Sky or even the foreign providers.
I personally know lots of people that tell me they can't afford Sky no matter how much they'd like it but then smoke 20 a day and order takeaways 3 times a week so €2 a day is reasonable ...

Sorry. it's at least x2 to x4 what is reasonable. Sky simply charge what the market will bear. Then they have more money to bid against other broadcasters. It will keep rising while enough people think it's reasonable.

They are for all practical purposes unregulated. The ONLY factor currently that will reduce prices is a significant drop in subscribers.

STB

Minstrel27 wrote: »

Was there anything interesting said?

It was Farrel Corcoran and Paul Rouse of DCU before the Committee. They were answering question in relation to the protection of the Heineken Cup and Six Nations following on from a similar committee meeting with Arts Sports and Tourism and the IRFU(which I didnt catch myself). One of the Senators/TDs raised the issue of the cost of the Pub Subs.

Farrel Corcoran came across as very FTA inclined and his comments were much in the public interest.

Infact nothing much new from what Tom McGurk wrote in the papers back in May. The question I gather still to be answered by the IRFU - Where are they getting their 9-15million loss figure given that the existing monies are actually coming from FTA anyway! It was suggested that the IRFU would have no difficulty in the identifying new sources of incomes for the game anyhow given their ticket sell outs. Strong views exists as regards making rugby non elitist and encouraging more people to watch via FTA was constantly made - 250k watched the Magners game between the Ospreys and Munster where as the apparent number if it was PPV would be 15,000. That type thing - they will have that up on playback by end of week if their previous archive material is anything to go by.

http://www.sbpost.ie/commentandanalysis/irfu-is-playing-the-man-not-the-ball-49401.html