Eleven Sports - Down to La Liga - hands back Serie A

cupthehand1

Eleven Sports has secured rights to La Liga for the UK & Ireland for the next three seasons replacing Sky Sports as holders.

Can't say I have ever heard of the platform but they are operating in 6 other markets around the world. Will be interesting in the next few weeks to see their business model

http://elevensports.com/eleven-sports-secures-uk-and-ireland-rights-to-laliga/

IsMiseJoe

Another reason to not renew my sky sports subscription.

wadacrack

big blow for sky. Wonder will they try and get serie a coverage

IsMiseJoe

wadacrack wrote: »

big blow for sky. Wonder will they try and get serie a coverage

I hope not. I like my BT/eir package with Bundesliga, Serie A & European football with the odd LOI game thrown in. Great value IMO.

icdg

Eleven Sports will need to make money out of these rights. There’s only two ways they can do that.

Firstly, they can try to sublet to an existing broadcaster (Sky, BT, or eir Sport/Premier). The problem is that their potential customers have all already had the chance to acquire these rights and have already decided that they are not worth the price Eleven Sports has paid for them, let alone paying that price + a premium (cause Eleven will want its take!). What might work is a split between the various broadcasters but really the big interest is in El Classico and there’s only two of those.

The other way is to try and directly market these rights via an online streaming service. Personally I won’t be subscribing just for El Classico - it’s a good game but it’s just twice a season in the league. I can’t see it being a subscription driver in this market.

irishfeen

I think what you could very well see is Eleven becoming part of the “BT family” of channels with an add on of maybe £5 to existing customers in the UK. Boxnation has today agreed to stay part of the BT arrangement too so it must be mutually beneficial for them.

lertsnim

According to some reports they are going for the two remaining Premier League packages also.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/eleven-sports-premier-league-rights-la-liga-broadcast-deal-sky-sports-andrea-radrizzani-a8332586.html

dublinman1990

Now that Eleven Sports have now taken these new rights to La Liga; would it be possible that they will take on a similar route to DAZN's live sports streaming service in Germany? A good thing that I read about on Eleven Sports website is that they operate 24 hours a day, multiscreen, Full HD & run it as a locally produced high standard operation. If they say they broadcast in Full HD for all of their services in other countries; they could spread that Full HD & possible UHD reach to all of their La Liga & possible PL rights for the UK & Irish market as well as this sounds like very encouraging news on their end to any new upcoming Eleven Sports subscribers.

More to a point about Full HD; could they launch their sports channels in HD & UHD only for sports subscribers using Pay TV platforms here? The reason I would say UHD is because Eleven Sports launched a UHD channel for the Polish market sometime last year. They also recently launched a streaming service called elevensportsprime which is up & running on twitch.tv that is normally a live streaming service for video gamers from around the globe.

lertsnim wrote: »

According to some reports they are going for the two remaining Premier League packages also.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/eleven-sports-premier-league-rights-la-liga-broadcast-deal-sky-sports-andrea-radrizzani-a8332586.html

BT Sport will have the least amount of PL matches with 32 games. This will put Eleven Sports in 2nd place with showing a maximum of 40 PL games if they take the two remaining packages. That article also mentions that they show F1 in other markets outside of the UK & Ireland. Let's say if Eleven Sports won that contract from Sky as well after their exclusive contract ends in a few years time. Would Eleven Sports take the exclusive rights to it in the future if Sky ditched F1?

icdg

If they won the Premier League rights that would be a game changer and would drive subscriptions in a way La Liga won’t. That said, the problem with the remaining packages, and one of the reasons they aren’t sold, is that they are concentrated over a very small time frame - two bank holidays and two midweeks. The reality is that on two of these rounds the rights holders will be required to produce and screen ten matches at the same time but any viewers won’t be paying for twenty matches - they’ll only be able to watch two. That’s why they are such bad value for the broadcaster.

It’s way too early to talk about the end of a Formula 1 deal that hasn’t actually started yet and runs until the middle of the next decade. The way is pointing towards F1, whose commercial rights are now owned by a media company owned by the same person who controls Virgin Media, taking those rights eventually in house, but it’s so far away that the FAPL will be nearly finished the deal after the next one by the time that the Sky deal expires.

icdg

Unconfirmed reports this evening that the Serie A rights are gone to Eleven Sports.

Tigerandahalf

icdg wrote: »

Unconfirmed reports this evening that the Serie A rights are gone to Eleven Sports.

There can't be too many people watching serie A or La Liga. The numbers are very small in the bigger picture. How sustainable is it?

An Ciarraioch

icdg wrote: »

Unconfirmed reports this evening that the Serie A rights are gone to Eleven Sports.

Did Eir's coverage just piggyback off the BT deal, or is it a separate package for Ireland, I wonder?

icdg

Afaik it was a separate deal. No confirmation as to whether this deal includes Ireland or not, though several media outlets are reporting that Eleven Sports are to launch two sports channels in the UK&Ireland. I think maybe that’s a topic for a separate thread - I just note it here because there was a poster a few posts back asking whether BT had retained the rights.

An Ciarraioch

Euronews website very informative - two subscription channels to launch next month, but no platform deal yet:

http://www.euronews.com/2018/07/12/img-backed-eleven-sports-takes-on-sky-and-bt-with-new-uk-sports-channels

icdg

Subscription channels I hope, PremPlus proved that people simply won’t PPV for football in this part of the world.

Tigerandahalf

It is interesting to note in that article that the value of these deals has dropped and that is why eleven stepped in.

BT and Sky may not be willing to pay over the odds for content that doesn't deliver viewers. With Ronaldo gone from RM the attraction will be less I guess.

Johnboy1951

icdg wrote: »

Subscription channels I hope, PremPlus proved that people simply won’t PPV for football in this part of the world.

Customers will be able to agree an annual subscription or pay per month.

The channels will be available online

Monthly/yearly sub and online only are mentioned in that article.

icdg

Indeed....

I’ve moved all the Serie A stuff to this thread, partly so we can keep the other thread for the BT, eir, and Premier stuff, and also because I think it now deserves its own thread

ziggyman17

To many subs for people to pay.. no wonder android boxes and the like are popular. Sky have lost a lot of sport and so have BT yet their monthly sub price continues to rise, I hope they start to feel it in their pockects. I have subscribed to Sky since the early days 20 odd quid a month, now with all add on’s broadband and the like its well over 100 quid a month.. madness.. Especially if you are into sport and want to watch it..

MD1990

ELEVEN SPORTS has today announced a strategic partnership with IMG in the UK and Ireland for the launch of two new sports channels that will include LIVE and EXCLUSIVE rights to Serie A as well as every match from LaLiga.

http://elevensports.com/eleven-sports-partners-with-img-and-secures-serie-a-rights-in-the-uk-and-ireland/

MOD EDIT: I know this is a press release and they generally don’t mind copying, all the same, reposting something this large simply breaks the flow of the thread. Summary and the link please

Roland27

Just when you're happy and content with having switched from Virgin Media to subscribe to Eir Sport and BT Sport when they first got the rights to Serie A, now they go and lose them a month before the season starts.

Online streaming and channels is the future of sport, its only a matter of time before they take over everything and dominate the market, but its still annoying having to pay TV subscriptions and fees just to watch Serie A (or La Liga) and then having to fork out extra for an online service.

Its unclear how it will effect Eir's coverage – they do include the BT Sport pack on their service, but they also show regular Serie A games on Eir 1/2 via the international feed. From reading the press release from Eleven Sports it doesn't sound like they will be sharing their coverage or subletting it out to Eir or BT, they seem like a pretty big company going all in with their 2 new online channels.

wadacrack

James Robinson
‏ @james_robinson2
22m22 minutes ago

James Robinson Retweeted Eleven Sports

Today we are welcoming another top European football league to our platform in the UK & Ireland

LaLiga ✅
Serie A ✅

Roland27

Ok, this is an interesting bit:

ELEVEN is in discussions with other major platforms in the UK and Ireland to offer the widest possible access to the premium action available on the service. This is in line with the ‘platform agnostic’ approach ELEVEN SPORTS employs in all its eleven international markets, making it as easy as possible for fans to stay close to the sport they love.

Other major platforms in the UK and Ireland? As in BT / Eir?

icdg

Yeah, I’ve posted on another thread about how attractive the Eir Broadband & Virgin TV combo might be in these circumstances. With two new premium sports packs joining the market - VM Sport & Eleven Sports - as well as the existing Sky Sports and Eir Sport pack (and let’s not forget Eurosport, who though not premium do usually require you to take the “big basic” second level tier that tends to also include documentary and kids channels), that’s a lot of money to be shelling out on sports if you’re paying full price for them all. Many won’t be, of course, with Eir Broadband customers getting the Eir Sport pack for free, Virgin TV customers getting the Virgin Sport channel for free, and Virgin Mobile and Broadband customers applicable for a “half price” deal on Virgin Sport. Likely though most people will have to pick and choose what they’re most interested in. I suspect Eleven Sports will have the hardest sell. Interest in Serie A peaked about 25 years ago in the post Italia 90 years, while for a lot of fans La Liga, other than El Classico, is a nice to have rather than a subscription driver.

One interesting from that press release - looks like they might have a boxing or MMA related announcement to make...

icdg

Roland27 wrote: »

Ok, this is an interesting bit:

ELEVEN is in discussions with other major platforms in the UK and Ireland to offer the widest possible access to the premium action available on the service. This is in line with the ‘platform agnostic’ approach ELEVEN SPORTS employs in all its eleven international markets, making it as easy as possible for fans to stay close to the sport they love.

Other major platforms in the UK and Ireland? As in BT / Eir?

As in Sky most certainly I would have thought, and likely Virgin and others too. I don’t think they’ll shack up with the Eir Sports pack (though it would be nice if they did).

JJ59

I missed this announcement when it was made back in May. La Liga was one of the reasons I have kept my Sky package. Now it is only American Football that keeps me there. They have lost so much that I can't see how they can keep going. it seems to be the Premier League or bust. Then to cap it all I get a letter from Virgin Media to say that from mid August I will not be able to have these premium channels in H.D. and will revert to SD. That's like going back to VHS from Blu Ray..

icdg

Is there some suggestion that Sky Sports HD is being removed from Virgin Media in August? There seems to be a (shortish) thread over in Talk to Virgin Media implying the same, although with no contributions from the reps. If so that’s one that has been kept very quite. I’d have to revise my assessment of Virgin TV+Eir Broadband so - maybe it will be the cheapest package but having to put up with SD only Sky Sports would be a tough price to pay.

IsMiseJoe

Now that BT/eir have lost Serie A rights, their upcoming price rise is ridiculous. I've being paying the yearly sub of €199 for the last few years but I got a letter recently saying it's increasing in Sept to €229.

A €30 increase without Serie A coverage - No thanks!

Gaillimh1976

icdg wrote: »

Is there some suggestion that Sky Sports HD is being removed from Virgin Media in August? There seems to be a (shortish) thread over in Talk to Virgin Media implying the same, although with no contributions from the reps. If so that’s one that has been kept very quite. I’d have to revise my assessment of Virgin TV+Eir Broadband so - maybe it will be the cheapest package but having to put up with SD only Sky Sports would be a tough price to pay.

Got a letter from VM this week.


My understanding is still HD on main Horizon box, but dropping back to SD on the multiroom boxes.

Tigerandahalf

IsMiseJoe wrote: »

Now that BT/eir have lost Serie A rights, their upcoming price rise is ridiculous. I've being paying the yearly sub of €199 for the last few years but I got a letter recently saying it's increasing in Sept to €229.

A €30 increase without Serie A coverage - No thanks!

Depends on what you watch. If you're a rugby fan it is decent value. The problem is having to pay the sky charge under it.

I am wondering if we will see BT launch its channels on freesat at some stage. A lot of people would happily pay €230 a year if they didn't have to pay the €6/700 p/y to sky for channels that are free to air.

Are the BBC/ITV getting much income from Sky for the carriage of their channels?

JJ59

Have been on to Virgin Media this morning. I have to get an Horizon Box to keep my access to Sky Sports HD. Unfortunately it means I lose programmes I had saved on my current box which will be replaced. One of the downsides to recording on DVR I suppose.