General : ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news

[TimeLord2018]

HBO Max or WB Max or whatever the combined service will have a sport tiers , the entertainment tier might well include 'Discovery+' content.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by TimeLord2018

HBO Max or WB Max or whatever the combined service will have a sport tiers , the entertainment tier might well include 'Discovery+' content.

Yup.

I think the interesting thing is whether they take the fight to Sky in the UK and offer a fully-fledged streaming service with sport, entertainment and factual content and prioritise HBO content for this. Or whether they prefer to take Sky's money for HBO content and have a slimmer streaming offer.

[Gavin-D]

I've seen a few posts on the VM forum about dark picture on the Sky Sports UHD channels. Would my TV be suitable?

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/sa...-10221998.html

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Yup.

I think the interesting thing is whether they take the fight to Sky in the UK and offer a fully-fledged streaming service with sport, entertainment and factual content and prioritise HBO content for this. Or whether they prefer to take Sky's money for HBO content and have a slimmer streaming offer.

I don't think they'll take the fight to Sky, because they will be Sky!

Many pundits believe that Sky's owner Comcast, will merge/buy Warner Bros Discovery in the next few years.

[TimeLord2018]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Yup.

I think the interesting thing is whether they take the fight to Sky in the UK and offer a fully-fledged streaming service with sport, entertainment and factual content and prioritise HBO content for this. Or whether they prefer to take Sky's money for HBO content and have a slimmer streaming offer.

It looks like the plans are One-Stop Shop for Sports and Entertainment in U.K based on this article last May.

https://variety.com/2022/sports/glob...jv-1235265074/

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Horizon

I don't think they'll take the fight to Sky, because they will be Sky!

Many pundits believe that Sky's owner Comcast, will merge/buy Warner Bros Discovery in the next few years.

That’s right and NBC Universal as well.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Horizon

I don't think they'll take the fight to Sky, because they will be Sky!

Many pundits believe that Sky's owner Comcast, will merge/buy Warner Bros Discovery in the next few years.

I very much doubt it will happen or why would WBD bother to acquire 50% of BT Sport?

A combination of Comcast and Paramount is more likely and they do already co-operate in some European territories via the Sky Showtime service.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=sky+pa...st=5&FORM=PERE

---------- Post added at 00:05 ---------- Previous post was at 00:03 ----------

Originally Posted by TimeLord2018

It looks like the plans are One-Stop Shop for Sports and Entertainment in U.K based on this article last May.

https://variety.com/2022/sports/glob...jv-1235265074/

Good find.

[Rillington]

What coems to mind is the level of availability of TNT Sports to VM customers.

Currently, XL (or whatever it is called these days) customer have BT Sport as part of that package, as had been the case with ESPN and originally Setanta Sports. Will Warner allow this to continue? Also, will Eurosport's content disappear behind a subscription paywall, making it only available if you pay £30/month (or whatever BT Sport costs for satellite customers).

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

I very much doubt it will happen or why would WBD bother to acquire 50% of BT Sport?

A combination of Comcast and Paramount is more likely and they do already co-operate in some European territories via the Sky Showtime service.

The American regulators will never allow that because it would bring two of their big two networks, NBC and CBS, together. Although I guess they could sell one of them, but what would be the point?

A Comcast/WBD makes more sense, especially so in regards to sports rights, because its all about the tech giants now and it has been since Murdoch sold off most of his empire.

Apple, Amazon and Google are serious about sports rights, Mircosoft has yet to show its hand, so a newly enlarged Sky/NBC/WBD may reckon it'll be big enough to compete against Big Tech. But I have always been guided by what Murdoch said when he sold out, and he said he couldn't compete against the tech giants. If he couldn't, neither can any of the other traditional Hollywood/media companies either.

In the States, Apple has already won Major Leaague Soccer rights and baseball rights and I expect Apple to continue bidding for more sports rights in the future. Although, it went head to head with Google over some of the NFL rights currently held by DirectTV, but backed out. Despite Apple's deep pockets, 2 billion dollars a year was too much for them, but not for Google.

Likewise, over recent years, Amazon has been building up significant sports right too. From some NFL rights in the States to UEFA and some premiership rights in the UK. That will just continue.

And finally, bidding for the premier league rights starts this year and Big Tech is going to be heavily invested in that. In this article I am linking below, I found it interesting that eight of the clubs are now 100% American owned.

I have always said the goal is for the Big Tech to bid for global sports rights and so the sports can only be viewed on their respective streamers. It's happening in the States, but at the moment the football rights in the UK are only for UK viewers, but that will change at some point. Paying 10 billion quid a year for some global premierhship rights will seem like small fry in the future, as far as Big Tech is concerned. Sky, Disney, WBD etc cannot compete against that.

https://worldsoccertalk.com/tv/apple...ST-415657.html

[TimeLord2018]

I doubt wouldn't be allowed to own both Sport networks in the UK and US.

Where did this rumour come from ?

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by Rillington

What coems to mind is the level of availability of TNT Sports to VM customers.

Currently, XL (or whatever it is called these days) customer have BT Sport as part of that package, as had been the case with ESPN and originally Setanta Sports. Will Warner allow this to continue? Also, will Eurosport's content disappear behind a subscription paywall, making it only available if you pay £30/month (or whatever BT Sport costs for satellite customers).

I reckon they'll have may have one channel left in the future which they'll use to promote their streaming service and that channel will remain free.

What deals they do with VM remains to be seen, perhaps they'll do what Sky are currently doing and bundling Discovery+ into the XL bundle.

---------- Post added at 13:40 ---------- Previous post was at 13:38 ----------

Originally Posted by TimeLord2018

I doubt wouldn't be allowed to own both Sport networks in the UK and US.

Where did this rumour come from ?

There's a global language that trumps everything else and it's called money. What seems unlikely today, will be the norm in the future, I reckon. Unless Big Tech start to run into problems and have to start saving their pennies.

[Phunkenstein]

Originally Posted by Horizon

The American regulators will never allow that because it would bring two of their big two networks, NBC and CBS, together. Although I guess they could sell one of them, but what would be the point?

A Comcast?WBD makes more sense, especially so in regards to sports rights, because its all about the tech giants now and it has been since Murdoch sold off most of his empire.

Apple, Amazon and Google are serious about sports rights, Mircosoft has yet to show its hand, so a newly enlarged Sky/NBC/WBD may reckon it'll be big enough to compete against Big Tech. But I have always been guided by what Murdoch said when he sold out, and he said he couldn't compete against the tech giants. If he couldn't, neither can any of the other traditional Hollywood/media companies either.

In the States, Apple has already won Major Leaague Soccer rights and baseball rights and I expect Apple to continue bidding for more sports rights in the future. Although, it went head to head with Google over some of the NFL rights currently held by DirectTV, but backed out. Despite Apple's deep pockets, 2 billion dollars a year was too much for them, but not for Google.

Likewise, over recent years, Amazon has been building up significant sports right too. From some NFL rights in the States to UEFA and some premiership rights in the UK. That will just continue.

And finally, bidding for the premier league rights starts this year and Big Tech is going to be heavily invested in that. In this article I am linking below, I found it interesting that eight of the clubs are now 100% American owned.

I have always said the goal is for the Big Tech to bid for global sports rights and so the sports can only be viewed on their respective streamers. It's happening in the States, but at the moment the football rights in the UK are only for UK viewers, but that will change at some point. Paying 10 billion quid a year for some global premierhship rights will seem like small fry in the future, as far as Big Tech is concerned. Sky, Disney, WBD etc cannot compete against that.

https://worldsoccertalk.com/tv/apple...ST-415657.html

I think for the most parts, some of the big tech giants are actually far more prudent than some give them credit for… I think there’s does seem to be an assumption they can just offer anything and take what they want from the table when it’s apparent that isn’t the case… you rightly mention Apple and Sunday Ticket (especially more awkward as reports indicate Apple were asking for things that weren’t even on the table!) and Amazon are being fairly disciplined about things like football (the recent UCL deal in Italy where they just opted to hold onto their one game per round as opposed to some big splashy blow everyone out the water deal) and letting things go like the ATP/WTA… if anything I think Amazon are behaving more like a disciplined broadcaster than a cash rich spender!

I think Apple do want big, global and with everything in rights and I think that might actually be the right move for the likes of MLS who are struggling to scale in their own country let alone the rest of the world as well as other smaller players (who I think will be watching that MLS deal with interest) but I think some of the bigger tier one sports, though they may move more and more inventory to streaming are more inclined to hedge themselves a bit by spreading the wealth either in their home markets or key territories rather than committing themselves to a single partner globally where they may essentially be at the mercy of that one partner. F1 as an example of someone who have been furiously tying up new deals globally with existing partners (even though they may be the one best placed for a big f*** off global deal), NFL keeping their home territory mainly on linear with multiple partners and then that recent DAZN deal to offload Game Pass and even Big Ten college football spreading the wealth amongst US linear (and avoiding Amazon who offered a big number for the game that I believe went to CBS on Saturday afternoons).

I think what the NBA do in the next couple of years with their tv rights is going to be an interesting one to see - I won’t be surprised if they split their US inventory even more but maybe do something a bit more scaled outside of the US.

[Horizon]

I think you're right, the Big Tech won't just throw money away, but at the moment it's all about positioning and seeing who'll be number one. That takes a lot of money, especially if they end up, as I expect they will, buying up all the old Hollywood companies.

But I kind of hinted at it in my previous post, but at some point I expect Big Tech to cut out the "middle man" and as an example, they'll directly own the premierhship clubs. A new UK sports regulator has just been set up today in the expectation of changes to come, so expect fireworks on this front in the future. (makes good entertainment, if nothing else)

[Aguero9320]

A Comcast/WBD combination would be interesting for the UK sports market. Would the CMA allow Sky's 11 channels, and TNT's seven, under common ownership? My answer is: probably not.

[Phunkenstein]

Originally Posted by Aguero9320

A Comcast/WBD combination would be interesting for the UK sports market. Would the CMA allow Sky's 11 channels, and TNT's seven, under common ownership? My answer is: probably not.

Assuming a Comcast/WBD merger was even allowed (and I have my doubts it would pass unless they can somehow position it as a big shield against a big tech monopoly) I think it’s likely there would need to be some serious divestments or spins to make it happen… suspect on this side of the Atlantic it’s obviously sports like TNT and Eurosport more so than entertainment whereas in the US, it’s issues like CNN and MSNBC and flagship channels like TNT and USA.

My honest thought is that Comcast themselves are probably only interested in the prominent creative assets such as the studio, the library, DC, Potter and HBO… think they’d be happy to let a lot of the tv assets go as I’m not sure how additive they are for them.