Champions League on pay TV only?

lertsnim

I wonder if the Europa League rights are non exclusive or will BT Sport have to be blocked.

Edit: I see TV3 have all Champions League games on both nights, excluding the RTÉ game as well as all Europa League games.

I can most of these being Virgin Media exclusive.

iseegirls

Wasn't expecting that. First time TV3 will have exclusivity over the CL finals since they started sharing rights with RTE.

Eir Sports is the biggest loser in this one.

Great to see Europa League return free to air though.

lertsnim

iseegirls wrote: »

Eir Sports is the biggest loser in this one.

Virgin Media will be giving them the two fingers with this after their spat a couple of years ago.

political analyst

kooga wrote: »

Rte have Tuesday night
Tv3 have Wednesday night CL plus Thursday Europa League

Wouldn't RTÉ have save themselves some money if they had decided not to bid for the rights of any of the CL matches?

icdg

So TV3’s press release:
https://www.tv3.ie/news_sub_page.php?locID=1.2.888

TV3 get all Wednesday night games, second choice on Tuesday night, the final, the Super Cup, and exclusive rights to the Europa League.

RTE get first choice on Tuesday night.

It’s a massive gain for TV3 coming on the heels of their Six Nations and European Rugby Cup deals.

Eir are out, in their own right, though it’s not quite so bad because they can still broadcast BT’s coverage (according to this earlier announcement from Team, anyway:http://www.team.ch/news/uk-and-roi-media-rights-deal-champions-league-and-europa-league/ ).

iseegirls

lertsnim wrote: »

Virgin Media will be giving them the two fingers with this after their spat a couple of years ago.

I still think they would like the FTA Irish Rugby World Cup rights. Still no mention of them.

But yes, this leaves Eir Sports rights very bare.

kooga

iseegirls wrote: »

I still think they would like the FTA Irish Rugby World Cup rights. Still no mention of them.

But yes, this leaves Eir Sports rights very bare.

swings and roundabouts eir have the pro 14 from next year

icdg

Not really. Assuming the previous Team announcement I linked to is correct (and they are the ones who sell the rights on UEFA’s behalf), and assuming the eir-BT deal is renewed, then eir subscribers will still have access to everything they presently do. True, Europa League exclusivity is gone, and eir won’t be presenting anything in their own right any more.

The latter might be actually favourable to eir though because they no longer have any expenses related to acquiring rights or production, and it gives Premier Sports the airtime back.

Elmo

This sounds to me that Virgin are just taking on the Pay portion from eirSports and the move of FTA coverage on TV3 to Wednesday Nights and over to Tuesday Nights to RTÉ2.

eir might retain their deal with BT Sport but nothing to stop Virgin doing a deal with BT Sport directly when the eir contract runs out.

As I said in the other tread could be that all eirSports games go on Virgin onDemand or that when TV3 re-brand that we see a virgin Sports channel on Pay Platforms.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2018/0515/963640-rte-to-broadcast-champions-league-for-next-3-seasons/

EdEd

Ten Pin wrote: »

Ryle says it's great news, does he realise that RTE have lost the final rounds and Wednesday night games? He'd garner more respect if he just told us what he really thinks or else say nothing

RTE kind of have to say something about it as they have bought the rights to a major sporting competition. He's not going to say it was terrible now is he?

Schwanz

I’d say we’ll see BT on Sky next season and a return to Virgin too

EdEd

Schwanz wrote: »

I’d say we’ll see BT on Sky next season and a return to Virgin too

From next year in the UK Sky customers will be able to pay for BT Sport through Sky. That won't be happening here though.

Schwanz

EdEd wrote: »

From next year in the UK Sky customers will be able to pay for BT Sport through Sky. That won't be happening here though.

That could happen, Isn't Eir's deal due to run out at the end of the season?

paulboland

Schwanz wrote: »

That could happen, Isn't Eir's deal due to run out at the end of the season?

Yes Eir contract for Bt Sport is to 2019

What happens with Eir BT Sport deal after 2019 is unknown at the moment

Schwanz

paulboland wrote: »

Yes Eir contract for Bt Sport is to 2019

What happens with Eir BT Sport deal after 2019 is unknown at the moment

I genuinely think Sky will knab that for here like in the UK.

Elmo

Schwanz wrote: »

I genuinely think Sky will knab that for here like in the UK.

BT Sport is available on pay platforms in UK (Virgin and Sky).

I could be wrong but I though that the reason for eir pulling its channels off Virgin was largely down to Virgin's unwillingness to pay as much as eir wanted.

BT Sport could decide to go it alone in Ireland.

icdg

They could. The eir Sport/Setanta deal has never made much sense to me. And yet, partially because it never made sense in the first place, I could easily see it being renewed.

Schwanz

Ok, Is Virgin to show every game Live like that in the UK/Ire that BT do?

Or is it just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday?

Elmo

Schwanz wrote: »

Ok, Is Virgin to show every game Live like that in the UK/Ire that BT do?

Or is it just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday?

just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday, with RTÉ taking the other Tuesday night game.

Schwanz

Elmo wrote: »

just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday, with RTÉ taking the other Tuesday night game.

Just what I was thinking but their post on Twitter is slightly confusing.

" Calling all football fans. Virgin Media and @TV3Ireland have secured the live rights to all UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches. That’s over 300 European matches a season. Go on my son! "

irishfeen

Elmo wrote: »

just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday, with RTÉ taking the other Tuesday night game.

But the Tuesday night games are "shared" with TV3, AFAIK they are not exclusive to RTÉ and TV3 will have at least 2 games on Tuesdays live too.

From what I can see TV3/Virgin have exclusive live rights to every single game over the 3 years with RTÉ having non exclusive rights to 1 Tuesday night game. (In the contract I presume TV3 cant broadcast same match as RTÉ on their primary channels)

"Virgin Media and TV3 secure rights to all UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches for the next three years and live rights to over 300 European matches per season"

mikeym

It looks like Virgin Media will probably launch a channel dedicated to European Football.

And I presume it will be exclusive to Virgin Media customers.

Im only speculating but I reckon Virgin will want to increase the numbers that subscribe to the Tv Pack.

dublinman1990

I am not liking the sound of this news tbf. I currently use Saorview for currently watching the CL games on RTÉ2 in HD. And from next season when I try to watch a game on TV3 from either The Champions League, The Europa League or The Super Cup; I could be watching the games from a video image that is equal from the year 2000 or worse with possibly no HD available in the near future for FTA viewers?

What on earth were RTÉ thinking of in these press releases when they say that they knowingly have less games their previous years in their coverage of the Champions League when not including the new deals on the European or World Cup Qualifiers?

How is this news called as a positive from RTÉ to all the licence fee payers out in our own TV landscape?

I can't believe that I'm going to watch this year's CL final with RTÉ for the last time in a long while. As I can't afford a Pay TV subscription; I like many other casual football fans are left with unacceptable sub par SD quality on both TV3 & TG4 on Saorview. It should HD only for all of these channels on Saorview as it should be a mandatory requirement under our current broadcasting legislation.

icdg

To be fair. the number of Champions League games RTE will have next year is just one less than this year. Granted, that one game is a big one, the final.

It seems that it has become mandatory among every post remotely connected with TV3 to complain about the HD on Saorview situation. I’m considering this but for now, in terms of the Broadcasting forum, this issue should be now considered off-topic in every thread other than the TV3 one

EdEd

Elmo wrote: »

just the Wednesday two games and one Tuesday, with RTÉ taking the other Tuesday night game.

If this is speculation then you should mark your post as so.

icdg

And we shouldn’t have backseat moderation either. We do a lot of speculating on this forum. It’s fun, but maybe if we do go into speculating we use terms like “may” rather than being definite.

Part of the problem is that UEFA don’t seem to do official press releases when rights are awarded any more so its hard to gauge exactly what the terms of this deal are, even more how TV3 are going to fulfill them.

iseegirls

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I am not liking the sound of this news tbf. I currently use Saorview for currently watching the CL games on RTÉ2 in HD. And from next season when I try to watch a game on TV3 from either The Champions League, The Europa League or The Super Cup; I could be watching the games from a video image that is equal from the year 2000 or worse with possibly no HD available in the near future for FTA viewers?

I can't believe that I'm going to watch this year's CL final with RTÉ for the last time in a long while. As I can't afford a Pay TV subscription; I like many other casual football fans are left with unacceptable sub par SD quality on both TV3 & TG4 on Saorview. It should HD only for all of these channels on Saorview as it should be a mandatory requirement under our current broadcasting legislation.

As has been said earlier, RTE2 are losing one fixture (the final). Not too much of a change. The Super Cup is up there with the Community Shield in terms of competitiveness so I hardly consider it a major game.

Also, need to put this in perspective - everyone in the UK has to pay some sort of a subscription to watch Champions League and Europa League Football through BT. There won't even be any highlights on ITV from next season. Meanwhile, in Ireland we retain two nights of Champions League football - free to air, and Europa League football will return free to air as well if matches are shown on 3e. That is very good news for the casual football fan here that can't afford Sky, BT, Eir TV packages

OneEightSeven

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I could be watching the games from a video image that is equal from the year 2000 or worse with possibly no HD available in the near future for FTA viewers?

Try 2011. The HD launch was recent enough. In the year 2000, they still had 4:3 aspect ratio. The reason why you think the video quality looks that dated is because modern TVs have more pixels, which makes old videos look worse.

ligerdub

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I am not liking the sound of this news tbf. I currently use Saorview for currently watching the CL games on RTÉ2 in HD. And from next season when I try to watch a game on TV3 from either The Champions League, The Europa League or The Super Cup; I could be watching the games from a video image that is equal from the year 2000 or worse with possibly no HD available in the near future for FTA viewers?

What on earth were RTÉ thinking of in these press releases when they say that they knowingly have less games their previous years in their coverage of the Champions League when not including the new deals on the European or World Cup Qualifiers?

How is this news called as a positive from RTÉ to all the licence fee payers out in our own TV landscape?

I can't believe that I'm going to watch this year's CL final with RTÉ for the last time in a long while. As I can't afford a Pay TV subscription; I like many other casual football fans are left with unacceptable sub par SD quality on both TV3 & TG4 on Saorview. It should HD only for all of these channels on Saorview as it should be a mandatory requirement under our current broadcasting legislation.

Sorry but I couldn't but help think of the following when I read that

icdg

Im not sure I made myself clear when I said that the HD issue was now off topic for this thread, 48 hour ban for next person that discusses picture quality on this thread