Sky's Now TV confirmed to launch in Ireland

The big, big thing about Now TV is that - in the U.K. at least - it offers a legal way to watch Sky Sports on a TV without taking out a full Sky package. Makes it one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, ways of getting a full Sky Sports package (to take Sky Sports on satellite, you must also take the Sky Original Bundle).

It's also very useful for renters who can't commit to a 12 month or longer contract and those who can't get a satellite dish for whatever reason.

They have to really careful pricing this. Price the service too cheap and they will have their own DBS customers moving to it! (Indeed I have long held the theory that is the reason why Ireland has had to wait so long for this service when all of Sky's other markets - where FTA holds a much greater % of viewing). So the challenge is to make it attractive to the more casual customers that can't or won't commit to a long term contract (because they're renting for a term shorter than 12 months, or the landlord won't let them put up a dish) while not losing the well paying satellite customers. In Sky's other markets this is aimed at pay-TV refuseniks. In Ireland, it's a slightly different game because of pay-TV's hold on this market.

It's still the cheapest way of getting a Sky Sports package on your TV, perhaps excepting some limited time deals (Eir has one recently but seems to have gone) that go up significantly after a number of months. Every other provider, including Sky satellite, demands you take a basic TV package (comprising mainly of FTA channels and Sky One) before you can take Sky Sports. The cheapest Sky satellite package with Sky Sports is ?55 for the first six months but climbs to ?70 after that.

To look at some other elements. There's no smart box for Ireland it seems, and no buy in from the FTA channels with the notable exception of Channel 4. The entertainment pass offers same channels as UK with the notable (but expected) absence of ITV Encore.

I think the big point is, you don't have to take the entertainment pass if you only want sport. On every other provider you must take a basic TV pack. I think the expectation is that you'll use it as a supplement to a Saorview/Freesat system to only get the pay channels you want.

Nope. The only UK terrestrial channel it includes is Channel 4.

It will never include BT channels though. BT will never do that deal even in the UK. They only deal with Sky for an EPG listing and conditional access services. They aren't part of any Sky or Now TV pack. If you want BT channels and don't want a dish, then Eir Broadband might be an option.

That is a much broader question. If anyone could do it, it would be the Premier League. They are already paying IMG to produce television coverage of every game that Sky and BT aren't at, something practically no other sports league in the U.K./Ireland does. But It would be a big risk. They'd have to forego a guaranteed massive upfront payment from Sky and BT, with none of the risk as far as subscriber take up is concerned, to move to a situation where they'd have to take on all the risk of subscriber numbers, management, marketing, etc.

The club Pass idea will just not happen, although I've no doubt the bigger clubs would like it to. Go down that road, and it once it becomes well established that the big clubs are well outselling the smaller ones, and the bigger clubs will soon be clambering for the end of the collective rights deals and the start of individual club rights deals.