Discovery-Sky dispute (Now resolved)

Harry Palmr

http://www.seenit.co.uk/discovery-threatens-to-pull-channels-from-sky-in-carriage-dispute/


Sky viewers could soon see Discovery’s portfolio of 12 channels – including
Discovery, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, DMAX, Home and Health and Discovery Turbo – vanish from their EPGs after the two broadcasters failed to reach agreement on a new carriage deal.

In a statement issued on Wednesday night, Discovery says talks to agree a new deal with the UK’s largest pay-TV brand “have reached an impasse” and accuses Sky of using “its dominant market position” to avoid paying a fair price for its channels and content.

According to Discovery, the firm is now paid less than it was 10 years ago, despite the fact that Sky households are paying much more than they did in 2007.

Responding to Discovery’s comments, Sky has accused the channel owner of making “completely unrealistic” demands from it and other pay-TV providers and claimed falling interest in Discovery’s linear-only channels meant it had been “overpaying Discovery for years”.

Surely SKY would have done something before now if this were actually the case

/

Discovery has reassured BT and Virgin Media customers that they will continue to have access to the channels as it has separate long-term agreements in place with those brands

Interesting piece - is this what happens when the only game in satellite town
is SKY or is this what happens when SKY's biggest spend, football rights, has gone through the roof in the last decade.

political analyst

Why doesn't Discovery just go FTA?

pegasus1

Discovery Networks UK & Ireland threaten to pull their channels off the Sky platform...:eek:

http://www.tvwise.co.uk/2017/01/discovery-threatens-pull-channels-sky-platform-carriage-negotiations-break/

If they do, bye bye Sky!

helimachoptor

political analyst wrote: »

Why doesn't Discovery just go FTA?

less revenue from advertisers id say

curryman

Defo will be bye bye Sky and not not even if they offered half price will i stay

dublinbusdude

Are they going to be pulled from Virgin Media too?

Just say it on the my Sky account when I logged in!! - no more Wheeler Dealers

icdg

Announced tonight by Sky that all Discovery and Eurosport channels are being pulled from the Sky digital package as of Wednesday 1st February.

merged threads

icdg

No, doesn't affect Virgin (which is why thread is moved to satellite and merged with thread there)

dublinbusdude

icdg wrote: »

Announced tonight by Sky that all Discovery and Eurosport channels are being pulled from the Sky digital package as of Wednesday 1st February.

Will they be pulled from Virgin Media?

icdg

See two posts above...

Harry Palmr

dublinbusdude wrote: »

Will they be pulled from Virgin Media?

Read the ****ing thread! :pac:

Chris ChoiVerified account
@Chrisitv · 18m18 minutes ago
Sky has tonight told me it will be dropping Discovery from it's channels from next Tuesday

dublinbusdude

Thanks icdg

lawred2

No longer an encrypted channel on 28.2e?

lawred2

icdg wrote: »

Announced tonight by Sky that all Discovery and Eurosport channels are being pulled from the Sky digital package as of Wednesday 1st February.

merged threads

In the same few months as subscription prices are going up

icdg

They are not just dropping encryption afaik - they are leaving Astra at 28.2E altogether. FTA is not their strategy - certainly not Eurosport's (nothwithstanding their different strategy in the German language market).

I can see a lot of Sky customers calling to drop from Variety to Original after 1 Feb. There's no value in the bigger pack now.

dublinbusdude

icdg wrote: »

I can see a lot of Sky customers calling to drop from Variety to Original after 1 Feb. There's no value in the bigger pack now.

Or ringing up Virgin Media to get a deal on their version on the pack

Harry Palmr

Sky say they will be showing documentaries if the impasse remains - given the junk that Discovery serves up these days for the most part who knows it could actually improve SKY's output for a while.

satguy

Discovery was a great channel years back,,,just re hashed rubbish now... that show with the auctioned off storage units does my head in.

philstar

^^ you can throw History and Nat Geo into that mix as well

pegasus1

From SKY...
Important information - Changes to your Sky channels
What is changing?
From 1 February, Discovery Communications’ portfolio of channels will no longer be available in Sky TV packages.
Which channels does this include?
In the UK and Ireland, this includes Animal Planet, Discovery HD, Discovery History, Discovery Home & Health, Discovery Science, Discovery Shed, Discovery Turbo, DMAX, Eurosport1, Eurosport2, Investigation Discovery, Quest and TLC.
Can I still watch now?
Yes, the channels will be available until 1 February. Sky has chosen not to renew its contract with Discovery, and at any point from 1 February, Discovery can remove them from the Sky platform.
Why can I no longer watch these channels on Sky?
Despite our efforts to reach a sensible agreement with Discovery, this hasn’t been possible. We’ve therefore taken the decision not to renew this contract.

curryman

satguy wrote: »

Discovery was a great channel years back,,,just re hashed rubbish now... that show with the auctioned off storage units does my head in.

i enjoy the ch but its not just one we loose. The eurosports as well. not to everyones taste but still good sports ch,s will be a sad loss for a good few

mike2084

Eurosport is the big bargaining chip in this, the affected sports bodies are not going to be pleased with this. Take World Snooker for example, they made a big commitment to Eurosport as 'The Home of Snooker', but now their potential audience is cut by 66%.

irishgeo

where i am going to get my fix of gold rush. This is huge news at least someone is standing up to Sky.

pegasus1

irishgeo wrote: »

where i am going to get my fix of gold rush. This is huge news at least someone is standing up to Sky.

Yeah thinking about gold rush too..just watching the latest episode..

swoofer

are sky reducing prices to match, it should work both ways?

lawred2

The quality of those channels has been deteriorating for a while now.. just reruns of clones of clones. Just how many body shop shows are really needed.

Plus staged reality is tedious in the extreme.

I will miss Eurosport's winter sports coverage though. Loved watching the downhill and ski-jumping. They were the only broadcaster covering it in any depth. 30 mins of downhill on BBC is a token gesture.

Glad I don't pay Sky for those channels as it is anyway.

icdg

mike2084 wrote: »

Eurosport is the big bargaining chip in this, the affected sports bodies are not going to be pleased with this. Take World Snooker for example, they made a big commitment to Eurosport as 'The Home of Snooker', but now their potential audience is cut by 66%.

The IOC might be the most annoyed, though the sublicence deal to the BBC might have helped.

Sports fans who want access to "everything" might be in a bit of bind now as there's no one platform that will give you all sports channels. Eir/Vodafone are the closest but you won't get Sky F1 or Sky Sports Mix. That said, Eurosport's focus tends to be on individual sports like tennis, snooker, athletics, cycling etc whereas the bigger sports channels tend to prefer team sports like rugby, football, GAA etc. The audience is different.

_Kaiser_

swoofer wrote: »

are sky reducing prices to match, it should work both ways?

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. Sky's prices only go one way.

This is indeed what happens when you massively overpay for premier league rights to try and squeeze out BT

The Cush

swoofer wrote: »

are sky reducing prices to match, it should work both ways?

Sky announces price rises in March and April

http://www.a516digital.com/2017/01/sky-announces-price-rises-in-march-and.html

Atlantic Dawn

Is it possible Discovery would become part of BT Sport offering on Sky?

pegasus1

The Cush wrote: »

Sky announces price rises in March and April

http://www.a516digital.com/2017/01/sky-announces-price-rises-in-march-and.html

In the UK though....

pegasus1

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Is it possible Discovery would become part of BT Sport offering on Sky?

BT Sport aka Eir in Ireland....seriously doubt it...

_John C

So what are sky selling now? Sports, movies, kids channels and a bunch of stuff thats already available FTA !

We left sky over a year ago. No loss. We watch plenty of documentaries on BBC without ads every 15mins.

If the discoveries go from sky then the only reason to have sky is for sky sports. Plenty movies, kids, music and documentaries available FTA.

Kat1170

Bye bye Sky. I suppose this is just the push I needed. :(

Sky have removed the Discovery channels from their site, I have to admit SKy is looking rather light on their offerings now.

http://www.sky.com/shop/tv/channels-shows/?DCMP=afc-473347&affiliate=true&postCode=AA11AA#!Entertainment-2

lawred2

Deleted User wrote: »

Sky have removed the Discovery channels from their site, I have to admit SKy is looking rather light on their offerings now.

http://www.sky.com/shop/tv/channels-shows/?DCMP=afc-473347&affiliate=true&postCode=AA11AA#!Entertainment-2

mostly FTA channels with premium sports and movies

11214

I really enjoy Eurosport, can we subscribe to their online offering here?

theteal

Deleted User wrote: »

Sky have removed the Discovery channels from their site, I have to admit SKy is looking rather light on their offerings now.

http://www.sky.com/shop/tv/channels-shows/?DCMP=afc-473347&affiliate=true&postCode=AA11AA#!Entertainment-2

This is the first I'm seeing about Sky losing Discovery. That article is also the first I've heard of BT dropping free BT Sports for broadband customers - this is literally the only reason I'm with BT, there are cheaper offerings around.

Anyway, a bit of research to be done.

roadmaster

I only signed up for a new sky package in October to get the Discovery channels etc, despite me being in contract can I drop back to a basic package since I am not getting the channels I signed up for?

mdwexford

People should vote with their feet.

Sky are way over priced. Anyone still paying them 60, 80, 100+ a month really needs to look at other options in this day and age.

Still charging 15 for hd channels is embarrassing.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Any chance this is just a bargaining tool and the channels will be back on sky at some stage in the future?

The French Open and US Open tennis aren't on any other channels.Don't want to miss out on either to be honest.

Is it possible to get all the sports channels (Sky,Setanta,BT Sport and Eurosport) with any other package?

theteal

mdwexford wrote: »

People should vote with their feet.

Sky are way over priced. Anyone still paying them 60, 80, 100+ a month really needs to look at other options in this day and age.

Still charging 15 for hd channels is embarrassing.

I'd agree but my package is Variety, Box Sets, Sports (no HD) is £25.15 per month. That's a sweet enough deal to stop me relying on poor streams for sports.

icdg

No. Vodafone comes close, but misses out on Sky Sports F1 and Mix, the former is only on Sky, the latter is on Sky & Virgin.

wnolan1992

Turbo is the big loss for me. And tbh, that's only for Wheeler Dealers (which I've sort of stopped watching lately anyway) and Chasing Classic Cars (the dude with the beard buying insanely expensive cars for people). Snooker on Eurosport is a big loss too.


But tbh, the Discovery channels have been going downhill for ages. All the channels in Sky's Documentaries section have. We got Sky at home in 2005, and I remember there being legit documentaries on Discovery and History. Now it's all f*cking Trawlermen on Ice or Swamp People Truckers or Storage Warrior-Hunters or Who Pawned My Truck Zimbabwe or some such drivel.

Necro

mdwexford wrote: »

People should vote with their feet.

Sky are way over priced. Anyone still paying them 60, 80, 100+ a month really needs to look at other options in this day and age.

Still charging 15 for hd channels is embarrassing.

€17.50 actually for HD now due to price increases... it's an absolute disgrace. This might finally be the push I need to leave Sky. Sick of being gouged for what is essentially FTA channels. Have the Variety package (no HD/Sports/Cinema) and with Broadband it comes to 72.50 a month. Literally the only reason I have the Variety package is for the kids channels for my little fella - I think I'll cancel and stick with Netflix for a couple of months, plenty of stuff for him there. Save up for a decent recordable FTA box with the money I save.

SteM

theteal wrote: »

I'd agree but my package is Variety, Box Sets, Sports (no HD) is £25.15 per month. That's a sweet enough deal to stop me relying on poor streams for sports.

Poor streams? The HD streams I get are better than the SD Sky Sports channels I subscribe to!

Gonzo

I know a good few people who are gonna bin Sky over this as Discovery and Eurosport were the main channels they watched.

Schwanz

Sky better pucker up or a there will be serious migration to Virgin in the UK & Ireland.

Lucas Hood

Discovery will cave in before February I bet.
Or at least I hope so because doesn't look like sky will increase their offer.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Surely Discovery would have to cave in as if they don't it's massive loss of viewers for them in the UK.

The contempt these companies treat there customers with is a disgrace.I have no option but pay for sky as i can't get proper broadband where I live.

Agent Coulson

Don't forget Discovery also now hold the pan European Olympic rights as well.