Sports Extra (TNT/Premier)

Butson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120275975#Comment_120275975

Yup. Don't ask me how, but it's very popular.

In America also it does way bigger numbers than both boxing and UFC.

Entertainment I suppose.

icdg

Unless anyone is prepared to produce BARB/TAM figures to back up their particular point we might leave that discussion there, because none of us really know without those figures.

Stewball

Do we know if it will continue on the Sky EPG?

Atlantic Dawn

Wonder what will become of it on Now TV.

icdg

No details on any of that yet, although the statement when the JV was created did say that they would enter into a long term carriage deal with Sky post 2030. I can’t imagine there’ll be any changes to carriage in the Irish market for the current BT Sport channels for the duration of this FAPL rights cycle - I’m not sure they’ll even be able to put the current BT channels on discovery+ while Sky are still handling all wholesale distribution in Ireland. (I don’t think that deal will last in that form past this rights cycle though, given WBD and it’s predecessors (unlike BT) have been dealing direct with Irish providers for decades, and I think they will want to put the BT channels on discovery+ here too as soon as they’re able to do so).

dulpit

Will that mean different levels of discovery plus with and without the by sports I wonder?

timothydec77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120277088#Comment_120277088

Thats the current state. Sports is €20 on Top of basic Discovery per year.

Premier League Rights are expensive. Any package with Premier League Football would be at least €30 to €40 per month

fman

Premier's next few picks are showing up on the premier league site or at least the fantasy page.

March

Sat 4th Arsenal v Bournemouth (had already been mentioned)

Sun 12th Man Utd v Southampton 2pm

Sat 18th Liverpool v Fulham

The game on the Sunday looks interesting and they haven't gone head to head with sky very often (outside final day or COVID).

icdg

That is interesting. From what I can gather it’s their Saturday 3pm pick but it’s been moved to Sunday due to Man United’s Europa League R16 fixture on the Thursday. Previously when this happened Premier lost the game and they were required to pick from the remaining 3pms but obviously that’s changed now.

fman

As icdg predicted, that Man Utd match on the weekend of the 11/12th is not still listed for premier and that weekend they will now show Leeds v Brighton on the Saturday at 3pm.

icdg

Yeah it’s changed on the FAPL website to Leeds v Brighton now too. Odd that. But it was the case before that if a match got moved out of Sat 3pm they had to re-pick from the remaining 3pms so really the surprise was that Man Utd v Southampton was still listed in the first place.

mackersdublin

Liverpool v Fulham has been postponed too for the 18th due to Fulham playing in the Quarter Finals of The FA Cup that weekend. No confirmation yet of what game PS will show instead, there's 4 3pm KOs that day

mackersdublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120212642#Comment_120212642

Updated:

March 11 - Leeds v Brighton because of Man Utd's game being moved to Sunday 12th

March 18 - TBC because of Liverpool v Fulham being postponed due to Fulham playing FA Cup Quarter Final that weekend

March 25 - International Break

April 01 - Arsenal v Leeds

April 08 - Spurs v Brighton

April 15 - Chelsea v Brighton

April 22 - Bournemouth v West Ham

April 29 - Brentford v Notts Forest

Acosta

With the amount of Sunday games they've been playing, Man Utd have barely featured on Premier Sports. I wonder is that why they were allowed to screen a midweek game a while back?

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120327354#Comment_120327354

Eoin McDevitt on second captains mentioned last week that the likes of Arsenal are popping up on Premier sports a lot now because sky are saving their arsenal games until the title run-in, so assuming united are out of that you'd expect them to start playing more Saturday games soon...

icdg

I don’t think they are guaranteed being able to show a certain team a certain number of times, none of the other packages work like that. They do have the rights to the midweek rounds Amazon would show but Man United v Bournemouth on 3rd Jan didn’t fit into that category and I was wondering on what basis they got that game. Aside from the final day U.K./Irish broadcasters normally have time slot exclusivity.

eguiney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120328422#Comment_120328422

That midweek seems to have been classed as a weekend round because of the World Cup - Sky Sports don't have midweek/holiday rounds, but showed other matches from that round.

Premier Sports missed a match from the round cancelled after the Queen died, but that might be considered similar to bad weather so they might not get a match from that round.

Acosta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120328422#Comment_120328422

I know it's nothing new, but it is frustrating when you're paying all the subscriptions and miss out on what would have been televised games because of schedule changes.

Spn744

Makes no sense why Ireland doesn’t have the rights to ever single epl game like all the other countries. We’re not in the UK and don’t have to abide by the 3pm blackout…

lertsnim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120350497#Comment_120350497

They're probably afraid that UK viewers will get all the games. Don't know if it's still the case but anyone with viaplay on satellite in the UK could see the 3pm game on Premier Sports through Other Channels.

It would be nice if there was a way of seeing them legitimately but instead if someone wants to see a game not shown they have to use illegal streams. It is amazing that the Premier League aren't cashing in on it.

icdg

But even if they decided to do so, would they make any more money than they are making now?

You have to appreciate that when the Premier League sell their TV rights, they are not doing it for the benefit of the football fan. They are doing it for the purposes of making as much money for their member clubs as possible, and no other reason.

Right now there is one dedicated Irish sports broadcaster, Premier Sports. The two other Irish sports channels, eir Sport and VMTV Sport have both gone. Sky made a go at the 3pms a few years ago and by all accounts had virtually given up on them at the end of the rights period. It gave them no extra benefit over their existing packages.

Sky and BT have been guaranteed time slot exclusivity, so forget about those games moved out of Sat 3pm for non-TV related reasons (like Man United v Southampton today) being offered. Sky do not want their package being undermined by Irish viewers having competing games against Super Sunday every UEFA Europa League match week. What could possibly be offered is the other 3pms but realistically would that add any value for either the FAPL or the broadcaster?

In the countries that get all 380 games, all 380 games generally go to one broadcaster. Ireland is the only country other than the U.K. in which the games are broken into 8 or so packages and this is done specifically to ensure the U.K. rights holders have an opportunity to get the same rights in ROI as they have in the U.K.

Manc-Red_

Should be interesting to see if Sky continue the Sports Extra pack next season with TNT/Premier Sports on it?

I’m currently on a deal for €23 per month for both Sky Sports & Extra, which is very good value imo.

If it’s say €40 + for both well then I’ll have to go another route unfortunately.

Cyfra + Poland in the past was brilliant but without English comms

icdg

I don’t think we’ll see any change in that until July 2025 when the current deal expires. After that who knows? WBD will probably want to offer TNT through the discovery+ app just as they will be in the U.K. from this July and the current arrangement granting Sky exclusive wholesale rights for ROI won’t sit with that. I’m not saying there won’t still be a deal with Sky but I don’t think it’ll be the sort of market wide exclusive wholesale arrangement BT had, it’ll probably be a more traditional carriage deal.

roadmaster

How are premier sports acrually doing. You never here much in the media about them or they dont seam to advertise much

icdg

Nobody really knows except Michael O’Rourke.

The arrangement they have means they have exactly the same number of subscribers as BT Sport, so I expect they do well at least on the commercial premises front as most pubs at least in Dublin seem to have BT (I can only speak anecdotally on that one, no actual numbers are published).

Since the separation from Viaplay they sell Irish advertising which is a new revenue stream I guess.

But they are a private company that doesn’t have to publish accounts and we don’t really know how profitable they are, to be honest. And yeah they rarely get any media coverage.

kitsy13

Bt espn name changed to bt 4 on virgin today..

timothydec77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120350497#Comment_120350497

The situation is bizare beyond belief.

We are even barred from watching Saturday 3pm English Football League Games on i Follow(efl streaming service).

Rights holders refuse to broadcast games from other Leagues from other countries outside the UK in Ireland.

icdg

The EFL, for better or worse, treat ROI as part of the U.K. for broadcast rights purposes. I suspect the amount of people who would watch a 3pm EFL game over a 3pm FAPL game are few and far between in any case.

Laliga 3pms are occasionally shown by Premier Sports, when the schedule allows.

Dodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120375853#Comment_120375853

To be fair, if someone is subscribed to their club through ifollow, then they likely would choose that over a televised EPL game. The subcription market is different to broader TV rights

Most people find a way either way if they’re that committed (the stuff we can’t talk about)

icdg

Some suggestion apparently from Owen Slot of the The Times (not sure if it is in tomorrows edition or todays Sunday Times but I have a sub and cannot find it online) that the URC, Heineken Cup and PRL rights are to be combined in one package. Could be a disaster for URC fans as it would be likely to mean the end of every game being televised (PRL typically has only three televised games each weekend) and I cannot see one broadcaster committing to televise all 12 URC & PRL league fixtures in a weekend. Anyway it’s an unconfirmed report at this stage. Would explain why the current Heineken Cup deal is so short though.

The other impact is that it’s likely to mean one or both of either BT or Premier losing the majority of their rugby coverage (which makes up the backbone of Premiers schedule these days).