Sports Extra (TNT/Premier)

energy1942

Does anyone know if the new BT sports channels due to be launched on sky in july will be made available to subscribers in ROI?
IT has been widely rumoured that ESPN may shut down their UK channel sometime later & if we do not get the new BT sports channels we would be likely to lose access to quite an amount of sports coverage.

nelly17

Good question I would suggest you post it to the BT Ireland Twittec a/c

swoofer

if its on sky we will get it so no worries

energy1942

GBCULLEN wrote: »

if its on sky we will get it so no worries

I should point out when I said Sky I meant on satellite, Remember Premier Sports is on Sky but is not available here, it is further worth noting that the award of premier league rights to BT are so far for UK only.

mikeym

energy1942 wrote: »

I should point out when I said Sky I meant on satellite, Remember Premier Sports is on Sky but is not available here, it is further worth noting that the award of premier league rights to BT are so far for UK only.

Imagine if BT didnt bid for the Irish rights who would get them?

Doesnt Sky have an agreement with BT with the broadband over here?

Dr. Nick

Who got the Irish/international rights for Saturday games? Hopefully not Selatanta....

mike2084

Irish rights have not been announced yet - big discussion here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056576464

Mr Cumulonimbus

Premierleague.com news section has an updating summary of rights winners here. Irish rights yet to be awarded.

icdg

The answer I suspect will lie in whether they are awarded the mirror Irish rights to the games they have acquired for the UK (which going on past Premier League form I expect they will be, but one never knows). If they do get those rights I'd be certain they will operate in Ireland too. If however they go to another party then the answer is probably not.

I'd hate to see them not operating here - if their rumoured acquisition of ESPN UK proceeds they will pick up the Irish rights to a number of competitions and were they not to operate here these rights may go into limbo.

mark_79

http://www.rte.ie/sport/other-sport/2013/0225/369514-bt-acquires-espn-uk-ireland-business/

I wonder if we'll continue to get the ESPN/BT switchover stuff free? :rolleyes:

johnolocher

Don't want to change the subject too much but if ESPN goes I will be gutted I enjoy their America channel.

Cantona's Collars

mark_79 wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/sport/other-sport/2013/0225/369514-bt-acquires-espn-uk-ireland-business/

I wonder if we'll continue to get the ESPN/BT switchover stuff free? :rolleyes:

More on it here, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21577676

ESPN Classic is to be wound down.

jack presley

http://www.btlife.bt.com/entertainment/bt-group-acquires-espns-uk-and-ireland-television-channels-business/?s_intcid=con_intban_BTSport_BTLife_PR250213

Along with the rights they've already bought up, they seem to be really making a go at being a viable rival to Sky. I wonder how much their subscription will be?

IsMiseJoe

This is terrible news. I enjoyed watching Bundesliga games at the weekend...
Will BT be available on sky?

Kristopherus

IsMiseJoe wrote: »

This is terrible news. I enjoyed watching Bundesliga games at the weekend...
Will BT be available on sky?

That was asked at the bottom of the linked page. No answer, though. Will be interesting to see how it pans out.

afatbollix

Yes all ready on Sky & will be on cable too.

galtee boy

It's on the RTE Aertel Business News tonight, that BT have acquired the Irish rights to whatever sports events, ESPN have for Ireland. Sorry, not able to show link to the Aertel page.

muffler

Source

MOD EDIT:Sorry, for copyright reasons we cannot allow entire articles to be reproduced verbatim

webpal

Might sound like an obvious question but does this mean there would be 3 satellite tv providers? Sky, bt and UPC?

Kristopherus

webpal wrote: »

Might sound like an obvious question but does this mean there would be 3 satellite tv providers? Sky, bt and UPC?

UPC are a cable and mmds tv provider.

Another question will be will BT block the Europa games to Ireland like ESPN does presently.

irishgeo

Kristopherus wrote: »

UPC are a cable and mmds tv provider.

Another question will be will BT block the Europa games to Ireland like ESPN does presently.

They won't have a choice, 3e own the Irish rights.

energy1942

BT & SKY secure live rights to Premier league for the next seasons, no news yet about 3pm kick offs.

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2012-13/feb/bksyb-and-BT-acquire-premier-league-rights-in-ireland.html

swoofer

setanta should get the 3pms as normal. Cant see anyone else interested.

irishfeen

GBCULLEN wrote: »

setanta should get the 3pms as normal. Cant see anyone else interested.

Big fear might be that the Premier League have totally scrapped the 3pm rights for Ireland...

lertsnim

irishfeen wrote: »

Big fear might be that the Premier League have totally scrapped the 3pm rights for Ireland...

True. If they were available then I am surprised that they wouldn't announce the 3pm rights with the others. Time will tell.

irishgeo

irishfeen wrote: »

Big fear might be that the Premier League have totally scrapped the 3pm rights for Ireland...

maybe as the rumour going around is that the same match will be broadcast all over Europe at 3pm.

forzacalcio

If ESPN goes and there is no replacement Ill definately be switching to Sky. I knwo its not UPCs fault but they really need to come up with something good to replace it

jack presley

forzacalcio wrote: »

If ESPN goes and there is no replacement Ill definately be switching to Sky. I knwo its not UPCs fault but they really need to come up with something good to replace it

There's no reason why the new BT/ESPN channels won't be on UPC. They'll be subscription channels but they'll be that way on Sky too

icdg

Moved and merged threads - we might keep this for BT Sport queries across all platforms. The general Premier League thread can be used to discuss Setanta/Sky etc

webpal

jack presley wrote: »

There's no reason why the new BT/ESPN channels won't be on UPC. They'll be subscription channels but they'll be that way on Sky too

I'm still confused. Will bt be on sky/UPC or are they another satellite provider?

lertsnim

They will be sport channels like Sky Sports. I have no doubt they will appear on both Sky and UPC

Crimsonforce

I thought there coverage of uk rugby was quite good

icdg

Best way to think about them is as a direct replacement for ESPN, they will fulfil the same role as it has in the market.

forzacalcio

Except they will probably charge on UPC.

channelsurfer2

yes these rights are worth a hell of a lot more than what espn were paying. Unless UPC fork out at least 5 to 10euro per customer or more to have it on their top pack, it will probably retail at anything from 15euro to 25 euro on upc.

Skinnykenyan

BT will be operating one ESPN branded channel which will probably be similar to the one we have now that shows the BPL rights. Id say it will be on sky but I wonder will it be included free in the sports package like it is now or will it be like setanta.

Mr Cumulonimbus

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

yes these rights are worth a hell of a lot more than what espn were paying. Unless UPC fork out at least 5 to 10euro per customer or more to have it on their top pack, it will probably retail at anything from 15euro to 25 euro on upc.

If viewing via a dish, your SS sub is now €62 pm. Throw in the BT option and you're looking at €77-87 pm for all the footie if thats what BT are going to charge.

Plus thats not including the Setanta sub if the Saturday 3pm games continue to be available next season. Getting pricier all the time to watch a bit of live football.

Skinnykenyan

Off topic but it would be alot better if games were PPV then we would only have to buy what we wanna watch

jack presley

Skinnykenyan wrote: »

BT will be operating one ESPN branded channel which will probably be similar to the one we have now that shows the BPL rights. Id say it will be on sky but I wonder will it be included free in the sports package like it is now or will it be like setanta.

Is the plan for them to have 2 BT channels and one ESPN one? If so I reckon they'll keep the ESPN one for their American stuff and move all the football, rugby etc that was on ESPN UK to their BT channels.

irishgeo

Mr Cumulonimbus wrote: »

If viewing via a dish, your SS sub is now €62 pm. Throw in the BT option and you're looking at €77-87 pm for all the footie if thats what BT are going to charge.

Plus thats not including the Setanta sub if the Saturday 3pm games continue to be available next season. Getting pricier all the time to watch a bit of live football.

ESPn was free in ireland as part of the sports sub last few years, i doubt that will continue for BT.

Mr Cumulonimbus

irishgeo wrote: »

ESPn was free in ireland as part of the sports sub last few years, i doubt that will continue for BT.

True. As channelsurfer2 says above these rights that BT have are way pricier covering those Saturday lunchtime KO's. There were/are some big matches at this time. Highly unlikely the ESPN scenario will continue.

ftakeith

€70 next season for sky sports and BT sports subscriptions

jack presley

ftakeith wrote: »

€70 next season for sky sports and BT sports subscriptions

Where did you hear that?

lertsnim

ftakeith wrote: »

€70 next season for sky sports and BT sports subscriptions

BT announced their prices did they?

icdg

jack presley wrote: »

Is the plan for them to have 2 BT channels and one ESPN one? If so I reckon they'll keep the ESPN one for their American stuff and move all the football, rugby etc that was on ESPN UK to their BT channels.

That is indeed the plan. Almost certainly the ESPN channel will likely be essentially ESPN America with some UK programmes thrown on where space demands.

Crimsonforce wrote: »

I thought there coverage of uk rugby was quite good

They did quite well with Premiership Rugby although I hated their counting down clock and the amount of screen space their scorebar used. BT Sport will have exclusive live rights to Premiership Rugby (and purportedly English teams home European games from 2014 but those rights were not Premiership Rugby's to sell and that is another whole can of worms).

As for pricing, well it is all conjecture at the moment.

energy1942

I have just spoke on the phone to BT Newsroom on 0044 0207 356 5369,
I wanted to enquire what sort of package will be made available to those of us in Ireland, I was told that no decision has been taken on how the games will be shown here, the person I spoke to said it is not certain that the same package of sports channels will be offered to irish subscribers & that it may well be that the games may be wholesaled to another platform in Ireland.

I asked did this meen that BT sports other sport such as rugby & tennis may not be shown in Ireland & was told that they may not own the rights to show them in Ireland, the only thing they were able to guarentee was that premier league football will be made available to Irish viewers.

He told me that all options remain open & that nothing has been decided although he did point out that BT do not currently operate in Ireland.

icdg

energy1942 wrote: »

he did point out that BT do not currently operate in Ireland.

Really? I obviously imagined that tall building in Grand Canal Dock so, or that trunk network they operate next to CIE railway lines. BT do very much operate in Ireland though they are focussed on the large I/C market and wholesale at present and do not retail to individuals or SMEs.

There's a lot of "may"s there. They are covering themselves and just haven't finalised plans yet, or if they have, the staff in the press office are not privy to these plans. When it comes to it they will not sell the rights to the games they have paid a lot of money for to their arch-competitior. Particularly if as has been reported they are refusing to use Sky for subscriber management.

energy1942

icdg wrote: »

Really? I obviously imagined that tall building in Grand Canal Dock so, or that trunk network they operate next to CIE railway lines. BT do very much operate in Ireland though they are focussed on the large I/C market and wholesale at present and do not retail to individuals or SMEs.

There's a lot of "may"s there. They are covering themselves and just haven't finalised plans yet, or if they have, the staff in the press office are not privy to these plans. When it comes to it they will not sell the rights to the games they have paid a lot of money for to their arch-competitior. Particularly if as has been reported they are refusing to use Sky for subscriber management.

I am just pointing out that my phone coversation with them yesterday left me in alot of doubt that the full BT sports channels package being offered in the UK may not be made available here.

He made it clear to me that BT were still keeping there options open with regard to Ireland & that they could not rule out that the premier league games may be wholesaled to another platform here & he did tell me that Bt do not currently provide internet tv or broadband in Ireland, he also pointed out that he was unaware if BT own the rights to it's other sport (Rugby,Tennis etc) in Ireland or if they could secure these rights for Ireland.

The one thing he was absolutely clear about was that the 38 Premier league games will be available in Ireland.

My own belief is that BT may let us have their full package, but it is possible we may only have ESPN & may recieve them on that, however I do not believe it would make commercial sense for Bt to buy the rights & not show them on their own branded channels.

This may decide whether or not I subscribe for the games.

energy1942

energy1942 wrote: »

I am just pointing out that my phone coversation with them yesterday left me in alot of doubt that the full BT sports channels package being offered in the UK may not be made available here.

He made it clear to me that BT were still keeping there options open with regard to Ireland & that they could not rule out that the premier league games may be wholesaled to another platform here & he did tell me that Bt do not currently provide internet tv or broadband in Ireland, he also pointed out that he was unaware if BT own the rights to it's other sport (Rugby,Tennis etc) in Ireland or if they could secure these rights for Ireland.

The one thing he was absolutely clear about was that the 38 Premier league games will be available in Ireland.

My own belief is that BT may let us have their full package, but it is possible we may only have ESPN & may recieve them on that, however I do not believe it would make commercial sense for Bt to buy the rights & not show them on their own branded channels.

This may decide whether or not I subscribe for the games.

I spoke to the bt sport press office yesterday & was told that no decision had been taken as to whether their new sports channels will be launched in Ireland.

they continue to point out that they do not currently operate tv or broadband in ROI, they told me it is a possibility that the premier league could be wholesaled to another platform in ROI if they do not have the rights to show other sports in ROI.

Manc-Red

energy1942 wrote: »

I spoke to the bt sport press office yesterday & was told that no decision had been taken as to whether their new sports channels will be launched in Ireland.

they continue to point out that they do not currently operate tv or broadband in ROI, they told me it is a possibility that the premier league could be wholesaled to another platform in ROI if they do not have the rights to show other sports in ROI.

I wonder will Setanta amazingly get these rights - would be some coup

lertsnim

Manc-Red wrote: »

I wonder will Setanta amazingly get these rights - would be some coup

They kind of have to now that it looks like Saturday 3pm games are gone for them