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

TCP/IP

icdg wrote: »

I think if Eleven Sports are really about to shut up shop (which will leave a lot of people who bought annual passes unhappy) they’ll have proved the old trueism that if you want to run a subscription sports channel in the U.K., you must start with the acquisition of Premier League rights.

Yes I know, Premier Sports.

But it shares its costs with eir Sport, and up until the Pro14 acquisition was built on very cheaply acquired rights to competitors which had no U.K. broadcaster and which were mainly aimed at ex-pats - the GAA (Irish), NRL (Australian/NZ) and NHL (US/Canadian). The Pro14 is it’s first big deal for a U.K. domestic league and even then the eir Sport connection is why it’s in there in the first place (again, the two are sharing their costs and on air talent, and Sky backed out when it was told a U.K.-only deal was the only thing on offer).

Actually it shows that it must be available through existing providers like Sky/Virgin or its a dead duck.

IsMiseJoe

TCP/IP wrote: »

Actually it shows that it must be available through existing providers like Sky/Virgin or its a dead duck.

I'd agree. Without a TV channel it was going nowhere.
I would have been one of the first to subscribe if they had a channel(s) on the Sky EPG.
With poor broadband coverage and capped usage in a lot of areas in the country - they were never going to get many subscribers in Ireland.

Tigerandahalf

IMG hold the rights to Serie A and then Elven bought them.

La Liga sold the rights directly to Eleven.

The interesting thing is that IMG, the UFC and Eleven are all share linked so this whole thing might not be down to just price.

From the guardian

Endeavour, the Hollywood talent agency which owns UFC and IMG, holds a minority stake in Eleven Sports UK & Ireland.

icdg

TCP/IP wrote: »

Actually it shows that it must be available through existing providers like Sky/Virgin or its a dead duck.

I think that’s right too, and the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The streaming revolution is not here yet, for sports at any rate, and most people want to watch sport on an actual TV in HD with as little delay/buffering as possible.

TCP/IP

icdg wrote: »

I think that’s right too, and the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The streaming revolution is not here yet, for sports at any rate, and most people want to watch sport on an actual TV in HD with as little delay/buffering as possible.

You are correct in fact it has moved on since that for me sport needs to be in 4K with Dolby Atmos before I would even consider it. Football and F1 in 4K and Atmos is really super.

Harry Palmr

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

A warning for all sports bodies thinking of going with a partner outside the established.

I wonder could they end up fta in the UK. Maybe Quest or ITV might be tempted.

Interesting that the STV player (Scottish version of the ITV Hub player) has been recently carrying La Liga and Serie A games for Eleven.

Discovery could see an opportunity if they are ambitious - Eurosport for the bulk of games with Quest as the 'barker' channel showing one or two games a week.

Tigerandahalf

I think one of the big problems for streaming sports is that you have so many different apps, all needing to work on different platforms.

There is a big need for a single app where all streaming companies would have to offer their service through. That way you could access content on any platform easily.

We sort of see it already with the eir sports app where the bt channels are integrated. If you could put the sky sports and eleven channels onto that and have it on your remote like a 'netflix' button it would make things a lot easier.

batistuta9

TCP/IP wrote: »

Actually it shows that it must be available through existing providers like Sky/Virgin or its a dead duck.

Don't think so, look at DAZN. the right content & ways to watch and it'll work. Android, apple, smart TVs, stb, consoles etc. no need to be on selling through another provider.

Do you think it would be in trouble if it had the PL? or just because they've leagues that get around the same numbers as the conference

mikeym

This is great news.

There was talk of Eleven Sports making some of the UFC events PPV and if Bt could extend the deal it would be great.

They would have got more subscribers if they were on the Sky Epg.

People are not going to fork out money for just La Liga and Serie A matches when they were already on Bt & Sky.

Dazn wont even go near the UK because they know they wouldnt be able to compete with Sky or Bt.

Wonder what the current subscriber numbers are for Virgin Sports? Another channel I'd like to see disappear and Champions League football return to FTA TV.

Delta2113

Champions league football wont return to FTA TV. I hope VM Sports get hold off Eleven Sports content.

Delta2113

Delta2113 wrote: »

Champions league football wont return to FTA TV. I hope VM Sports get hold off Eleven Sports content.

Why do you want to see content exclusively behind a paywall? I noticed Eleven Sports mentioned 'rampant piracy' as one of the reasons for its current difficulties.

wadacrack

sugarman wrote: »

Well its hardly going to be made FTA, is it?

Would be better if both return to Sky/BT

dulpit

Delta2113 wrote: »

Champions league football wont return to FTA TV. I hope VM Sports get hold off Eleven Sports content.

VM Sports is an awful choice though - as it is so limited.

Schwanz

2 sports pack is more than enough.

50,000 customers x £6 aint enough to keep that floating and surely the UFC must have seen those subscription numbers as alarming to pull the plug & rightly so

lertsnim

Schwanz wrote: »

2 sports pack is more than enough.

50,000 customers x £6 aint enough to keep that floating and surely the UFC must have seen those subscription numbers as alarming to pull the plug & rightly so

Seemingly they pulled it because of no tv deal being in place by December.

sugarman

sugarman wrote: »

Well its hardly going to be made FTA, is it?

If nobody bought subs they would have to look at their model again, wouldn't they?

OneEightSeven

Deleted User wrote: »

Wonder what the current subscriber numbers are for Virgin Sports? Another channel I'd like to see disappear and Champions League football return to FTA TV.

FTA can't compete with subscription TV. Commercial TV revenue is falling rapidly. RTE are making €94 million less in 2017 than they were 10 years ago.

Isco

Will Serie A and La Liga not be on TV until new rights deals are sorted out?

They just don’t have enough content that interests enough people. I have eleven sports by “non-official “ means ahem... and I haven’t tuned to it once since they had the USPGA and I have it as a channel in my epg along side my sky sports etc on the tv.

The championship is of much more interest to most people than the Spanish league even never mind the other Europen leagues. Golf coverage would attract a much bigger audience imo but they only had one tournament. The interest is in PL, champions league, rugby and golf. Outside of that it’s scraps really aside from big events such as a big boxing match, the darts at Christmas etc but a channel can’t survive on these few times a year events alone.

ebbsy

I presume Sky will get this at a knock down price now ? La Liga may have no choice or they could end up with nothing ?

irishfeen

Would be a big coup for either Sky or BT to take both La Liga and Serie A off eleven. Sky would look very powerful again!

Tigerandahalf

I wouldn't be surprised if a fta provider like itv was chosen - get viewership up and then sell the rights again in a couple of years.

Itv have very little soccer coverage now. Some of the Sunday evening games could bring in good viewer figures for them as there is no other sport on at that time - soccer and rugby are finished by tea time.

irishfeen

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

I wouldn't be surprised if a fta provider like itv was chosen - get viewership up and then sell the rights again in a couple of years.

Itv have very little soccer coverage now. Some of the Sunday evening games could bring in good viewer figures for them as there is no other sport on at that time - soccer and rugby are finished by tea time.

The problem is apart from the big games including possibly the top 4 teams in both leagues there probably wouldn’t be much of an audience for ITV or C4.

Tigerandahalf

irishfeen wrote: »

The problem is apart from the big games including possibly the top 4 teams in both leagues there probably wouldn’t be much of an audience for ITV or C4.

I think there would. You would be surprised how many casual viewers would watch. Have a couple of presenters on the ground on match day and you could have a very attractive package. Sunday tea time is ideal as many are in front of the tv after being out and about.

They could even have a bit on the host ground city beforehand which would add to the programme and attract sponsorship.

The viewership on sky was tiny anyway.

wadacrack

Sky and BT will take them. Sky football could do with another live league. Eredivisie and China maybe could be back aswell

Delta2113

dulpit wrote: »

VM Sports is an awful choice though - as it is so limited.

7 sports channels some nights -yes very limited.

Seriously the content added to VM Sport would be great for all VM Customers.

dulpit

Delta2113 wrote: »

7 sports channels some nights -yes very limited.

Seriously the content added to VM Sport would be great for all VM Customers.

I meant limited in the sense that to have it on broadcast you must be a subscriber to Virgin TV, which isn't available all over the country. Even if you have shoddy broadband you can still get eir sport through sky box, but not virgin sports...

Delta2113

If VM Sports becomes a "must have" - sky will do a deal to carry it.

icdg

VM aren’t offering it to them at present. They don’t want to do a deal.

I personally don’t understand that strategy when all they are offering is stuff available elsewhere, but anyway.

If Eleven Sports goes (still an if at this stage) the most likely outcome is that La Liga will go back to Sky and Serie A back to BT. That’s not a given though.