End of BT Sport?

[Coops]

"It is not clear if this means selling a stake in BT Sport or a full sale of the division, which was launched in 2013."

Only exploring options so nothing may happen.

[kk20gb30]

Believe we could be looking at a re-branding (should agreement be reached) with the portfolio remaining intact.Indeed, it is that ready made selection of content that would appeal to any broadcaster with the finance and desire to break into the market at the top table rather than build from the ground floor.BT Sport have spent big since their in inception as a means to capture viewers and help establish BT Television and whilst they have certainly given Sky a blood nose in terms of fighting for sporting rights they have obviously hurt themselves also in terms of what has been spent - and stating the obvious, Covid certainly has not helped.
The name of the British company supposedly interested has remained under wraps and this is the one that interests me personally the most but of the others if it came to a cash only shootout my money would go onto Disney , there have been rumours about them wanting to break into British and European sports broadcasting circulating for some time now.

[TigerFeetSteve]

Believe we could be looking at a re-branding (should agreement be reached) with the portfolio remaining intact.Indeed, it is that ready made selection of content that would appeal to any broadcaster with the finance and desire to break into the market at the top table rather than build from the ground floor.BT Sport have spent big since their in inception as a means to capture viewers and help establish BT Television and whilst they have certainly given Sky a blood nose in terms of fighting for sporting rights they have obviously hurt themselves also in terms of what has been spent - and stating the obvious, Covid certainly has not helped.
The name of the British company supposedly interested has remained under wraps and this is the one that interests me personally the most but of the others if it came to a cash only shootout my money would go onto Disney , there have been rumours about them wanting to break into British and European sports broadcasting circulating for some time now.

We've also got to remember that BT's foray in the sport was originally to take a bite out of Sky back after Sky moved from satellite to also being a broadband company in the process taking customers away from BT, so BT moving into sport was a direct retaliation of you take customers from us here, we'll take them from you there. It has successfully broken the monopoly that Sky was try to amass in the sporting world in the UK.

[SthrnTiger]

That would suggest they’ll want to sell to anyone but Sky. Hope that’s true! Don’t want to have to buy Sky broadband, TV and all the football coverage just to watch prem rugby.

[Scott1]

Correct me if I’m wrong but don’t BT own all the UKs phone and broadband lines anyway and the others like SKY etc are customers of BT? The only company who own their own are Virgin who has its own cable network.

[Bristol Tiger]

Yes they are selling to concentrate on broadband. As long as its not DAZN I'm happy. I'd love it to be SKY ,everything under one roof would be grand! But I expect it to be either DAZN,Amazon or Disney

Sorry Scott1, why do you not want DAZN?

Can’t answer for Scott1 but as a household we have subscriptions for Sky, Netflix, Disney, Amazon and BT Sport ... would be nice not to have to buy something else specifically for the rugby! (Which is the only reason I have BT Sport).

[Scott1]

DAZN coverage is terrible,although that could still be teething problems.

[Scott1]

Yes they are selling to concentrate on broadband. As long as its not DAZN I'm happy. I'd love it to be SKY ,everything under one roof would be grand! But I expect it to be either DAZN,Amazon or Disney

Sorry Scott1, why do you not want DAZN?

Can’t answer for Scott1 but as a household we have subscriptions for Sky, Netflix, Disney, Amazon and BT Sport ... would be nice not to have to buy something else specifically for the rugby! (Which is the only reason I have BT Sport).

If you was a betting man who would you go with? Disney (with their ties to ESPN) and Amazon (already have a football package) would be my two front runners. Although Comcast are not short of a few quid and if SKY were to get it then they are the go too!

[TigerFeetSteve]

Correct me if I’m wrong but don’t BT own all the UKs phone and broadband lines anyway and the others like SKY etc are customers of BT? The only company who own their own are Virgin who has its own cable network.

That's a whole different murky area and is the whole reason Openreach is no longer known as BT openreach. They had to be split into different companies due to issues with preferential treatment etc.

Due to competition laws Openreach has to allow other suppliers like Sky & Plusnet to rent lines off Openreach at a similar rate to BT Internet pays Openreach, that has nothing to do with the fact BT didn't like Sky taking a significant part of their market share of Internet supply and so went after a chunk of Sky's market share in a different area.

[Bristol Tiger]

Sorry Scott1, why do you not want DAZN?

Can’t answer for Scott1 but as a household we have subscriptions for Sky, Netflix, Disney, Amazon and BT Sport ... would be nice not to have to buy something else specifically for the rugby! (Which is the only reason I have BT Sport).

If you was a betting man who would you go with? Disney (with their ties to ESPN) and Amazon (already have a football package) would be my two front runners. Although Comcast are not short of a few quid and if SKY were to get it then they are the go too!

Agree, Amazon and Disney are my front runners (in that order) as it gives them a complete sports package. Amazon already shown interest (e.g. Autumn Internationals) and have money. Disney - just depends on whether they see sport as key to them - ESPN seems to tick along rather than be a serious sports offering (in the UK). Sky could certainly afford BT Sport (and probably still annoyed with them for pinching content) but Sky Sports is doing well and I imagine they would want to cherry-pick from what BT Sport have.

I’d be happy with any of them as long as they don’t add a new “sports” subscription for me to pay for!

[Scott1]

All good points and info guys thanks!

[Cagey Tiger]

ABS

Anyone But Sky.

Hated having to pay for so many sports I had no interest in (although BT Sport are neary as bad).

Hated their "If we don't broadcast it, it doesn't exist" philosophy, BT Sport have been a bit better at covering Pro14 and Top14 news (pre-Covid).

Hated the fact that a lot of the time they scheduled the next programme around 15-20 minutes after a match finished (dependant on the length of the game, obviously), of which 2-3 minutes would be "Coming up on Sky Sports" and 7+ minutes would-be adverts, leaving hardly enough time for the post-match people to say hello, let alone do any analysis (I always felt that they had the cushiest jobs on TV). BT Sport are usually guilty of similar for the 3pm kick-off on Saturday but far superior the rest of the time.

Rugby Tonight (pre-Covid) had a much broader appear than Rugby Club, and I found it more interesting and more entertaining (well most of it).

I'll leave any comments about Stuart Barnes, Dewi Morris etc. to everyone else (although I quite liked Will Greenwood and Scott Quinnell).

Sky's philosophy is that if they go into a sport, if they can't get almost a total monopoly of coverage (thereby having the fans - us poor sod's - over a barrel) they abandon it like a sulking schoolkid, football being the one exception to this as its too valuable.

I hate Sky so much that IF they get the English Premiership and/or Europe, I will do what I have done in the past and stop watching it on TV. Radio Leicester would get another listener (sadly no Bleddyn ).

(Fairly) objective rant over

[teds]

ABS

Anyone But Sky.

Hated having to pay for so many sports I had no interest in (although BT Sport are neary as bad).

Hated their "If we don't broadcast it, it doesn't exist" philosophy, BT Sport have been a bit better at covering Pro14 and Top14 news (pre-Covid).

Hated the fact that a lot of the time they scheduled the next programme around 15-20 minutes after a match finished (dependant on the length of the game, obviously), of which 2-3 minutes would be "Coming up on Sky Sports" and 7+ minutes would-be adverts, leaving hardly enough time for the post-match people to say hello, let alone do any analysis (I always felt that they had the cushiest jobs on TV). BT Sport are usually guilty of similar for the 3pm kick-off on Saturday but far superior the rest of the time.

Rugby Tonight (pre-Covid) had a much broader appear than Rugby Club, and I found it more interesting and more entertaining (well most of it).

I'll leave any comments about Stuart Barnes, Dewi Morris etc. to everyone else (although I quite liked Will Greenwood and Scott Quinnell).

Sky's philosophy is that if they go into a sport, if they can't get almost a total monopoly of coverage (thereby having the fans - us poor sod's - over a barrel) they abandon it like a sulking schoolkid, football being the one exception to this as its too valuable.

I hate Sky so much that IF they get the English Premiership and/or Europe, I will do what I have done in the past and stop watching it on TV. Radio Leicester would get another listener (sadly no Bleddyn ).

(Fairly) objective rant over

Totally agree. In fact same for Sky or Amazon.

[Jimmy Skitz]

it won't be sky, competitions commission would block it.

Disney or Amazon would be my guess, if its Disney a rebrand to ESPN if Amazon the channel will go dark and stream on Prime

[JP14]

ABS

Anyone But Sky.

Hated having to pay for so many sports I had no interest in (although BT Sport are neary as bad).

Hated their "If we don't broadcast it, it doesn't exist" philosophy, BT Sport have been a bit better at covering Pro14 and Top14 news (pre-Covid).

Hated the fact that a lot of the time they scheduled the next programme around 15-20 minutes after a match finished (dependant on the length of the game, obviously), of which 2-3 minutes would be "Coming up on Sky Sports" and 7+ minutes would-be adverts, leaving hardly enough time for the post-match people to say hello, let alone do any analysis (I always felt that they had the cushiest jobs on TV). BT Sport are usually guilty of similar for the 3pm kick-off on Saturday but far superior the rest of the time.

Rugby Tonight (pre-Covid) had a much broader appear than Rugby Club, and I found it more interesting and more entertaining (well most of it).

I'll leave any comments about Stuart Barnes, Dewi Morris etc. to everyone else (although I quite liked Will Greenwood and Scott Quinnell).

Sky's philosophy is that if they go into a sport, if they can't get almost a total monopoly of coverage (thereby having the fans - us poor sod's - over a barrel) they abandon it like a sulking schoolkid, football being the one exception to this as its too valuable.

I hate Sky so much that IF they get the English Premiership and/or Europe, I will do what I have done in the past and stop watching it on TV. Radio Leicester would get another listener (sadly no Bleddyn ).

(Fairly) objective rant over

BT might mention Top14 and Pro14 when it comes to their European coverage, but fail to mention anything from the southern hemisphere. I think the best example of this is when Austin Healey argued that Paul Hill was the best tighthead in the loose in World Rugby when some bloke called Taniela Tupou plays for the Reds and is pretty good in the loose too.