Why doesn't NOW TV in the Republic of Ireland carry red button sports output?

As the title says, why doesn't NOW TV here carry red button sports output, especially since the UK equivalent does? A poster over in the Bargain Alerts forum was told by them that as he was an international customer there was a rights issue and the rights for streaming were different. That being so, what about Sky Glass and Sky Stream here? Are they similarly affected by this?

It's an issue that's going to persist when you have simultaneous kick off times in football. Premier Sports was a case in point during the week, where their red button games weren't available on NOW. Same happens for midweek EFL Championship games that are on Sky Sports via the red button. The new Sky deal for the Premier League from 2025 could also be a problem too when all the Sunday 2pm KOs will be televised for the first time.

Gold7

It is not only a problem for NowTV but also for Virgin Media Ireland viewers with the 360 box as well. This could be an issue for next Seasons Champions League also.

icdg

I don’t think it’s a rights issue, not in this case, I really think it’s Sky just wanting to have points to distinguish Sky and Now TV, they are absolutely clear that Now is the budget price point and Sky is the premium service.

Another thing to note though, with Now TV, is that often features are introduced in the UK and don’t make it over here for years. Indeed there was a five year gap between Now being launched in the UK and in Ireland.

Generally, pay TV does much much better here in Ireland than it does in the UK and Sky never want to make Now seem too attractive, really they want people on Sky. It’s target audience is people for whom Sky is too expensive and would otherwise pirate and people who live in accommodation situations that would preclude them entering into a 12 month contract. (The problem for Sky is that the ready availability of offers - and they probably didn’t anticipate that really good thread in Bargain Alerts - probably has made Now TV too attractive. As I’ve said before it’s not suitable to be your main TV option and you’ll want to pair it with Saorview and Freesat).

icdg

With the launch of Sky Sports Tennis red button functionality seems to have been added to Now in Ireland - select “Sport” from the bar at the top, scroll to “Sports” then select “Tennis”. Then scroll to “Bonus Streams”.

Not sure if it’s just for tennis or we’ll see it for other sports too.

lertsnim

We should find out tonight as Sky has a lot of Championship football games on the red button.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121758655#Comment_121758655

I logged into my inactive NOW TV account and saw this text for the Sports Day Pass. Now includes the bit "excludes Bonus Streams". Didn't notice this before.

lertsnim

The red button Championship games are showing now. Hopefully this extends to Premier Sports when they have extra games.

cc

Was just checking myself and I just noticed my LG tv Now app has live pause working, can rewind 30 mins too (even if you just switched to a channel). Seems to be just on sports and sport extra, not entertainment

tiegan

Info needed - I have never had NOW tv - looking into getting the sports as I watch the tennis. Do you have to have the entertainment package to add on sports or can you have sports (not sport plus) as a stand alone package. Also can anyone confirm the the sky tennis shows the red button streams as well? New to this!!

decor58

I can't say with certainty but we got Sky movies and entertainment was not included and likewise we had entertainment and no access to other categories. So in my experience we could just subscribe to the categories we wanted and didn't have to take on any others and we didn't have any other sub initially to get access.

icdg

No. That’s the beauty of Now TV. You can take any TV package (“membership”) without taking any other. Most traditional pay tv packages require you to take the basic package before you can add sports or movies.

Makes it just about the cheapest way to get Sky Sports if that’s all you want.

Yes they show the red button tennis streams now, and any other Sky Sports RB button content. (Not confirmed yet if the same applies to TNT/Premier though).

tiegan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121916204#Comment_121916204

Thankyou!! Super helpful!