Sports Extra (TNT/Premier)

popebenny16

does this mean press pass and pardon the interuption uk will still be running?? good shows for the post 11pm slot i think.

Manc-Red

Email I've just received from BT.

Hi Chris. In the Republic of Ireland, there are a number of platforms for Pay TV, including Sky and UPC. The BT Sport team is in discussions with a number of companies to make BT Sport available on these platforms and are fully confident that BT Sport will be available in the Republic of Ireland before soccer season begins. We'll release more details soon.
Best regards, Priscilla

jack presley

Manc-Red wrote: »

Email I've just received from BT.

Hi Chris. In the Republic of Ireland, there are a number of platforms for Pay TV, including Sky and UPC. The BT Sport team is in discussions with a number of companies to make BT Sport available on these platforms and are fully confident that BT Sport will be available in the Republic of Ireland before soccer season begins. We'll release more details soon.
Best regards, Priscilla

That's nearly word for word what the bloke said on Morning Ireland earlier. They must be reading from a script

kooga

i wonder as a taster will they have the first weekend of football a free pass weekend........to lure us in?

stuartfanning

Given that BT Sport has rights to the Football, and other sports they will be airing, in ROI - why don't they just set the channels up on the IrishSky EPG as they have in the UK on the British EPG. The negotiation with Sky could have been done at the same as those for the UK>

dublinman1990

On Thursday Night, I discovered that the BT Sports 1 Channel is presumably on for Test purposes via on a free to air satellite platform in Ireland. A screenshot graphic was seen like this below on my Triax TSC 114 Saorview combo box.




It is provided in the clear on the Eutelsat/Astra 28.2

http://en.kingofsat.net/detail-btsport1.php

IsMiseJoe

Some pointless info...

2 channels (similiar to the image above) were added to the sports section of the Sky EPG a few weeks ago named BT Sport 1 & 2 but were removed a few days later.

Digifriendly

IsMiseJoe wrote: »

Some pointless info...

2 channels (similiar to the image above) were added to the sports section of the Sky EPG a few weeks ago named BT Sport 1 & 2 but were removed a few days later.

They're avaliable here (NI) via Sky with repeat/rolling video advertising forthcoming sports to be featured.

Madworld

Anyone have a clue as to what is likely going to happen to ESPN America??

Madworld

Madworld wrote: »

Anyone have a clue as to what is likely going to happen to ESPN America??

Its going to be Part of the BT sports package. You will have to take out the BT subs unless we get it free which is very unlikely.

What gripes me is that us irish subscribers got ESPN for free to make up for the price difference, are sky going to look after us when ESPN go in June?

jack presley

Deleted User wrote: »

Its going to be Part of the BT sports package. You will have to take out the BT subs unless we get it free which is very unlikely.

What gripes me is that us irish subscribers got ESPN for free to make up for the price difference, are sky going to look after us when ESPN go in June?

Did we ever find out why we've been stuck with ESPNA Lite the past year with all reference to the NFL being excluded? Was it because ESPN didn't want to pay for the rights, even brief one for use in a news format or was it because Sky got some exclusivity deal from the NFL preventing any clips beng shown on other satellite broadcasters?

I'm not too pushed on the Premier league or rugby or any of that kind of stuff so if we're going to be stuck with the watered down version of ESPNA I'm probably not going to bother getting the BT package. I'll get college football games online but if it goes back to the days of having full shows of ATH and PTI and we get Sportscenter etc. back, I might subscribe.

icdg

jack presley wrote: »

Did we ever find out why we've been stuck with ESPNA Lite the past year with all reference to the NFL being excluded? Was it because ESPN didn't want to pay for the rights, even brief one for use in a news format or was it because Sky got some exclusivity deal from the NFL preventing any clips beng shown on other satellite broadcasters?

ESPN America is a pan European broadcaster, but because of the interest in NFL in the UK & Ireland being far greater than in most of continental Europe, the NFL are able to offload rights directly to UK broadcasters rather than on a pan-European basis. This precludes EPSN America from airing these games in the UK. You might remember that ESPN did hold rights for Monday Night Football in 2010 and 2011 but this aired on ESPN UK not ESPN America.

I'm not too pushed on the Premier league or rugby or any of that kind of stuff so if we're going to be stuck with the watered down version of ESPNA I'm probably not going to bother getting the BT package. I'll get college football games online but if it goes back to the days of having full shows of ATH and PTI and we get Sportscenter etc. back, I might subscribe.

Its worse than that from your point of view so. ESPN is pulling completely out of Europe and ESPN America and ESPN Classic will be closing down. The ESPN UK channel, which will be taken over by BT Sport, will continue to show some of ESPN America's US/Canadian programming (including NCAA football/basketball and MLB) but will not be showing NFL. What ESPN US original programming it will show I don't know, but it should be pointed out that some UK programming will be aired on the channel for contractual reasons including most notably the FA Cup, so it won't be exactly a continuation of ESPN America.

jack presley

icdg wrote: »

ESPN America is a pan European broadcaster, but because of the interest in NFL in the UK & Ireland being far greater than in most of continental Europe, the NFL are able to offload rights directly to UK broadcasters rather than on a pan-European basis. This precludes EPSN America from airing these games in the UK. You might remember that ESPN did hold rights for Monday Night Football in 2010 and 2011 but this aired on ESPN UK not ESPN America.

It's not the actual games or even the Sunday Countdown show that I'm on about. It's the way that once ESPN UK lost those right you mentioned, it was as if the NFL didn't exist on ESPNA. Sportscenter, Sportsnation, DLHQ etc. which all included clips from NFL games were all cancelled and the ATH and PTI that we were left with had all the clips taken out and we are left looking at the hosts while they are describing something we're supposed to be seeing.

So my question is was it because the ESPN group refused to pay whatever small amount it costs to show clips in their news shows or magazine type shows or was it because Sky said "we have the rights here, we're not letting our rival show any NFL".

As they're basically shutting down their European operation, maybe they've been losing money for years and didn't want to be spending more than they have to which is why it is as it is? I'm just curious

Madworld

icdg wrote: »

. ESPN is pulling completely out of Europe and ESPN America and ESPN Classic will be closing down. The ESPN UK channel, which will be taken over by BT Sport, will continue to show some of ESPN America's US/Canadian programming (including NCAA football/basketball and MLB) but will not be showing NFL. What ESPN US original programming it will show I don't know, but it should be pointed out that some UK programming will be aired on the channel for contractual reasons including most notably the FA Cup, so it won't be exactly a continuation of ESPN America.

That's what I was thinking.

My main interest in ESPN America was for the College American Football.

I assume now that they'll only be showing the games which are on after midnight out time and even at that it will probably be taking a backseat to UFC & Baseball.

Think I'll just subscribe to the ESPN player.

Wils110

I was looking at the uk sky epg in work today and it listed bt sports as freesat.......will we be able to tune it in like itv

lertsnim

Wils110 wrote: »

I was looking at the uk sky epg in work today and it listed bt sports as freesat.......will we be able to tune it in like itv

It will be a subscription channel. Currently the promos are FTA. Only BT Broadband customers in the UK will get it for no extra charge

icdg

I've renamed the thread to make it clear this is THE BT Sport thread, I've closed I think four threads in Satellite in the past week so no more please.

TAFKAlawhec

lertsnim wrote: »

It will be a subscription channel. Currently the promos are FTA. Only BT Broadband customers in the UK will get it for no extra charge

As far as I understand it, BT Sport will be available to those with Freesat From Sky in two ways (1) If a household has a Freesat From Sky set up and also subscribes to BT Broadband, the viewing card can be enabled to watch the BT Sports package for no charge as part of the offer through BT's broadband service, or (2) if a customer with Freesat From Sky is willing to subscribe to the BT Sports package on their own, which they are free to do so. Literature from BT at present states the following...

On Sky Digital Satellite Platform - If you have a satellite receiver box and viewing card, you can easily take BT Sport from us. You don't need to be a BT customer - but if you have our broadband, it's free. And it's only available direct from BT. Order now for free HD for a year.

...there is nothing there that states that you have to be a current Sky subscriber to have BT Sports added.

My parents currently have a Sky setup with an Amstrad Sky+ HD receiver, Sky sub with no movies or HD levy (FTA HD channels like BBC1 & 4HD are fine, as is 5HD FTV) with my younger brother (who still lives at home with them part-time) paying the extra for ESPN. They also have BT Infinity on a Market 1 exchange (therefore no LLU operator meaning no big advantage having Sky for their "Connect" broadband which is limited to 40Gb per month) which just got upgraded to 80Mb down & 20Mbit up thanks to them only being about 50 metres from the cabinet. They were wondering what would be the case when ESPN in its current form closes down at the end of July, but with BT Sport being available to watch on Sky for no additional charge other than to commit to another 12 months on any current contract, it's a great deal for them and if you factor the standalone cost of BT Sports in with the premium that Infinity has over ADSL broadband being offered, it's a good package. While there's no such thing as a free lunch, you're pretty close to it in this case regarding BT Sports.

As for what will be done in the Republic - it was always going to be the case that BT would have been using the sports rights they've been gathering up to use in the UK as a part of an integral multi-play service offer in a similar fashion to that offered now by Sky and Virgin Media. With both eyes pretty much on a UK market share, getting the channel into the Irish market for BT is unlikely to be a priority. Since BT have no equivalent residential service in RoI of broadband or IPTV, such an offer won't be packaged in the same way so bar a deal somewhere I'd say that for Sky at least it'll be an additional stand-alone subscription; not sure how UPC will be approached, unlike Virgin or Sky they aren't a competitor to their broadband & phone services so something could be struck between the two parties.

McLoughlin

I Realy hope that MLB, baseball tonight, PTI & ATH stay on air on this new channel even though PTI & ATH are edited I would really miss them e great to see Sunday NFL countdown return aswell.

icdg

TAFKAlawhec wrote: »

As far as I understand it, BT Sport will be available to those with Freesat From Sky in two ways (1) If a household has a Freesat From Sky set up and also subscribes to BT Broadband, the viewing card can be enabled to watch the BT Sports package for no charge as part of the offer through BT's broadband service, or (2) if a customer with Freesat From Sky is willing to subscribe to the BT Sports package on their own, which they are free to do so. Literature from BT at present states the following...

...there is nothing there that states that you have to be a current Sky subscriber to have BT Sports added.

Its the exact same arrangement as Setanta, however you do have to have a Sky viewing card of some description to order it as they need the viewing card number. Not sure whether a previously cancelled viewing card can be used?

ABajaninCork

So can you have a 'live' Sky sub (and therefore a live viewing card), call BT direct and get the BT Sport added??

swoofer

yes

ABajaninCork

Cool!! I might give BT a call later and find out the price. I can pay in stg anyway...

TAFKAlawhec

icdg wrote: »

Its the exact same arrangement as Setanta, however you do have to have a Sky viewing card of some description to order it as they need the viewing card number. Not sure whether a previously cancelled viewing card can be used?

The web sign up just asks for a viewing card number and the address associated with it - even non-subscribers like those with Freesat from Sky or expired cards will have a name and address attached to it for the likes of rejoining offers or to contact FSFS users as far as can be allowed within the UK Data Protection Act. For example when the old analogue service was shut down the customer database had to be eventually deleted for compliance, it couldn't be transferred or merged with the digital subscriber database. Since a previously cancelled (for Sky's packages anyway) Sky viewing card becomes a de-facto FSFS UK card without the card upgrade guarantee, I assume it can be used for the BT Sport service should one wish to do so.

lertsnim

An old ex sub Sky viewing card did work for me for the short time I subscribed to setanta. Can't see BT Sport being different

R.F.

Can Irish customers subscribe to this yet?

Does the free HD for a year apply over here too?

snaps

I notice the BT sports channels have 2 sets of each proposed channel testing now. But all still carry the UK number. So we still dont have any idea whats happening with BT sports here in Ireland and how much money its all going to cost.

Rizzo the Rat

I got a mail from BT Ireland yesterday after I enquired when I could order BT Sport. They are still in negotiations with distributors in the Republic of Ireland and should have an update in the coming fortnight.

Joseph Reilly

Only interested in watching the UFC so hope thy sort out the Irish deal soon

icdg

Rizzo the Rat wrote: »

I got a mail from BT Ireland yesterday after I enquired when I could order BT Sport. They are still in negotiations with distributors in the Republic of Ireland and should have an update in the coming fortnight.

What I don't get is why they are in negotiations with Sky at all, since they have decided to do their own subscriber management in the UK, surely they would do the same in Ireland as indeed Setanta do. Maybe they are waiting for a deal with UPC to announce all the ROI pricing arrangements together.

Incidently, it took ESPN right up until the day before the Premier League started in 2009 to do a deal with UPC, although they were available to subscribers (at that stage as a standalone premium channel) before the first Premier League match.