Sports Extra (TNT/Premier)

icdg

The Premier League will, as usual, do what best suits the Premier League. It would be difficult for Apple to do any deal of that type though, because there are as you say longer deals in certain markets, it’s not just the US, and because the Premier League does things on a country by country basis.

I suspect if Apple do go for a rights package it will be for the packages currently held by either BT or Amazon. If they took the Sky package it would be seismic, but for Sky that package is existential and they will bet the house to keep it. Note how Apple are not willing to do deals at any price; they pulled out of negotiations for NFL Sunday Ticket in the US that analysts said they were nailed on to win.

dublinman1990

SVG Europe has reported that over 200 staff members have had their jobs dissolved following the their recent jv being announced with WBD.

The announcement came staff after they attended a zoom meeting which mentioned that they had to re-apply for roles to continue working with the business.

A consultation process is underway with all staff members as they re-apply for roles.

https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/bt-sport-staff-that-transferred-to-warner-bros-discovery-in-joint-venture-deal-now-at-risk-of-redundancy/

Separately it was announced that BT Sport will leave Stratford once their lease on the building expires later this year. It will move over to buildings owned by WBD in Chiswick and Stockley Park in the near future.

mike2084

Update on Premier Sports schedule this weekend - there seems to only be one Challenge Cup game now which is on PS1 at 7:55p.m. Friday., Glasgow Warriors v Bath. This is the game that ViaPlay are screening as well. Unfortunately Newcastle v Connacht has been dropped to EPCR's own streaming platform. Premier Sports have picked up both days of the Nordic Darts Masters on PS2, which is an extra as ITV were only covering the Saturday.

Again just taken from EPG updates, knowing Premier you could tune in and find something completely different!!

icdg

Dragons v Lions on Sunday 1pm Prem 1 also. There’s a couple of repeats of Toulon v Zebre and Free State Cheetahs v Pau stuck in there too but not live.

Digifriendly

Viaplay Extra are showing the Toulon/Dragons/Pau games live so if you're in the ROI you can add Viaplay channels manually and watch that way though you can't record. Sadly no Connacht coverage on either Viaplay or Premier.

eddieoregan

Watching the darts on Premier Sports 2 on Sky, picture is poor, looks as its a streaming feed!!

mike2084

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120135625#Comment_120135625

Yes it looked terrible, definitely looked like some kind of stream.

eddieoregan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120137103#Comment_120137103

Picture is much better today on ITV 4 HD!!

dublinman1990

WBD have confirmed this evening that the lease on the studio used for BT Sport in Stratford will expire in July.

BroadcastNow has reported in a paywalled article that BT Sport will move to an existing base in West London.

Meanwhile the 200 staff who are at risk of redundancy at BT Sport have been told by management that the number of jobs they can apply for at the broadcaster have been reduced.

The new jobs have to be applied by people under a completely new recruitment structure with the media conglomerate.

According to the Bectu trade union website; there will be redundancies at the broadcaster taking place later this year. But it is not clear how many will be implemented at the moment.

https://bectu.org.uk/news/prospect-deeply-concerned-as-warner-bros-discovery-puts-bt-sport-employees-at-risk-of-redundancy

Butson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120137103#Comment_120137103

Have Premier Sports via Vodafone TV.

Picture is excellent, HD. BT comes in SD.

icdg

BT is HD too no? It’s Sky Sports that’s in SD only?

Elsewhere that rare thing, a press release relating to Premier Sports! Details of their Leinster Senior Schools coverage, and a quote from Michael O’Rourke (in case there are any more doubts about the ownership of the Irish operation).

https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/premier-sport-and-leinster-tv-confirm-schools-schedule/

icdg

FA Cup Fourth round ties (all Prem 1)

Today

8pm Man City v Arsenal

Tomorrow

12:30pm Accrington Stanley v Leeds

3pm Fulham v Sutherland

5:55pm Preston NE v Spurs

8pm Man United v Reading

Sunday

12:45pm Brighton v Liverpool

4:25pm Wrexham v Sheffield United

URC gets booted to Prem 2 and is basically just the provinces games live. Friday and Saturday LaLiga and Top 14 gets repeats only. There are three live LaLiga games on Sunday and one Top14 fixture in prime time.

Incidentally there seems to be a story out, not sure how true it is, that prior to the Viaplay takeover that DAZN made an offer for Premier Sports that would have effectively involved Setanta Sports taking a stake in DAZN. Quite rightly it was rejected (they weren’t selling for €0 and a stake in a loss making business) but if true it may have spurred on the takeover.

icdg

Possibly won’t be missed by many but looks like Championship Rugby League is another causalty of the Premier/Viaplay split.

Infoanon

Add Nascar to that list as well.

As an aside a company called eurasian broadcasting enterprise ltd with the same address as Premier is a rights holder but not for Ireland.

icdg

That would be the Setanta Eurasia operation I think, still called Setanta but no longer owned by O’Rourke/Ryan - sold to a Georgian company a year or two ago. They do have NASCAR rights, I think, and operate in several Eastern European and Asian markets.

mackersdublin

Premier Sports PL 3pm Coverage:

Feb 11 - Arsenal v Brentford

Feb 15 - Arsenal v Man City (Wednesday 7.30pm)

Feb 18 - Everton v Leeds

Feb 25 - Leicester v Arsenal

Mar 04 - Arsenal v Bournemouth

Mar 11 - Man Utd v Southampton

Mar 18 - Liverpool v Fulham

https://www.premierleague.com/fixtures

icdg

Probably the biggest ever Premier League fixture Premier Sports will ever cover tonight with #1 Arsenal v #2 Man City. Seems to be studio coverage to as befitting. Alas with no website or social media you won’t know unless you’re a regular viewer.

Digifriendly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245031#Comment_120245031

Can people in ROI see this game via Amazon Prime?

sniper_samurai

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245179#Comment_120245179

No, Amazon only have the rights in the UK. It is being broadcast on Premier here.

eguiney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245031#Comment_120245031

They put an ad on the front page of the Irish Times

swoofer

I'm watching amazon prime but....

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245312#Comment_120245312

To be fair to them they did, and my comment was met slightly flippantly, but also the fact that they had to actually take out a front page advert in a national newspaper speaks volumes at their lack of communication with customers.

icdg

Some U.K. press speculation that details of the combined BT/Eurosport offering are to be unveiled tomorrow.

mike2084

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120268086#Comment_120268086

Here in Mail Online:

Premier League games to broadcast on a new channel next season after BT Sport rebrand | Daily Mail Online

Dodge

BT sports is being rebranded to TNT Sports. It will be added Discovery Plus app but remain on broadcast too. Interesting that the new head mentions “UK and Ireland” twice in this athletic article.

Eurosport is not being rebranded

https://theathletic.com/4237000/2023/02/21/bt-sport-tnt-sports-explained/

icdg

Not yet, later. That’s the plan for now anyway.

https://www.eurosport.com/all-sports/tnt-sports-the-future-name-of-bt-sport_sto9406766/story.shtml

Possibly being kept as separate entities for a while to allow the wholesale arrangement in Ireland (which applies only to BT and not Eurosport) to expire.

edit: seemingly it’s to allow renegotiation/expiry of Eurosport’s carriage deals. Remember Eurosport is typically carried on a basic tier whereas BT is premium.

Not sure about the TNT name. It’s one they are using in the Americas but the last time it was used here it was back in the 1990s (where it was the original name of what evolved into TCM).

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271391#Comment_120271391

No mention of the Rugby Champions Cup in that release, intentional I wonder?

bringing together one of the most extensive line-ups of live sports coverage for fans in the UK & Ireland - including the Olympic Games, the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Premiership Rugby, MotoGP, UFC, Boxing, WWE, tennis Grand Slams, cycling Grand Tours and the winter sports season.

Surely worth more of a mention than MotoGP or WWE!

icdg

I wouldn’t read too much into that, this is the first season of a (unusually short) two year deal for the Heineken Cup.

Butson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275139#Comment_120275139

WWE would get vastly more viewership than Rugby.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275773#Comment_120275773

Really?