ESPN Keeps Prices Unchanged as football shrinks

redout

Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN won’t reduce subscription prices for its U.K. television channel when the station loses half its Premier League soccer content next season, a senior company official said.

ESPN started broadcasting live sports in the U.K. after taking over a 46-game Premier League soccer contract following the collapse of Setanta Sports in June. Its offering will drop to 23 matches after British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc won the rights to all but one of the six packages for live rights for three seasons through May 2013.

“I don’t anticipate we’ll change price point,” John Skipper, ESPN’s executive vice president for content, said in an interview. “It’s clearly the signature product. Having 46 games this year was a real luxury. We’ll have to supplement the 23 important games next year. There’s no question the English Premier League remains the premier product for us.”

ESPN, which paid about 150 million pounds ($227 million) for its Premier League rights, charges subscribers using BSkyB’s platform between 9 pounds and 12 pounds a month. Other packages range from about 5 and 10 pounds. ESPN doesn’t reveal how many subscribers it has.

The channel also owns rights to the F.A. Cup, German and Italian leagues, the Europa League and French club rugby, and will show English Premiership rugby matches from next season.

Challenge

“It doesn’t matter how many other sports they have: the crucial content is Premier League,” said Tim Westcott, a senior television analyst at London-based market researcher Screen Digest. “Having half the offering for the next three years is certainly going to be a challenge.”

BSkyB, which has been broadcasting the Premier League since the competition began in 1992, agreed to pay 1.62 billion pounds to screen 115 games a season. ESPN and Sky cooperate in Asia on ESPN Star Sports, while the Disney unit competes with Fox Sports in Latin America.

In the U.K., Sky Sports’ in-house production team produces ESPN’s Premier League matches, while Sky Media, Sky’s ad sales unit, will sell advertising for both ESPN and the ESPN Classic channel, which is also available to Sky subscribers. Skipper declined to rule out striking a deal to acquire some of Sky’s Premier League content in the U.K. should it become available.

“We have common interests in our success so I’m sure we’ll explore every opportunity but right now I don’t anticipate there being more than 23 games next year,” he said. Under Premier League rules, Sky can’t sell broadcast rights.

Skipper said the two companies’ increasingly close relationship won’t affect the Premier League’s tender process the next time its live rights are sold.

Competition

“I think our discussing the price of any of these rights with them is inappropriate and I’m sure I’ll be advised by any number of lawyers to not do so. And since I value my freedom I will listen to that advice and not discuss price with them,” he said. “But I hope there’s certainly enough English Premier League games for two broadcasters or more. We’ll be working with the league to make sure we have enough games to have a solvent business here.”

The Premier League today announced plans to launch its own channel featuring exclusive content for overseas rights holders, who’ve paid around 1.2 billion pounds for the next three seasons. U.K. media reported the infrastructure could provide the league with a platform for its own domestic channel should broadcasters not meet valuations in the future.

“They were quite clear with us they were interested in targeting their own media and that media would be complimentary,” Skipper said. ‘I don’t think that’s intended as just bargaining.”

This season, English soccer has been engulfed in controversy. John Terry was stripped of the England captaincy following allegations he’d had an affair with former teammate Wayne Bridge’s ex-girlfriend, and champion Manchester United’s U.S. owners are facing a supporter revolt.

“The conflict creates drama.” Skipper added. “It creates a story. So for us to get compelling content to audiences having drama between players -- Mr. Terry and Mr. Bridge -- having conflict between fans and their owners, having conflict between teams is what creates interesting ratings, so we’re for that as long as nobody gets hurt.”

Very unjust.

They can kiss goodbye to thousands of customers.

kryogen

they will reduce it though, when they see how many people are gonna be cancelling!

pistolpetes11

kryogen wrote: »

they will reduce it though, when they see how many people are gonna be cancelling!

Well will SKY up there price ? if not then I wont mind ,

As long as Setanta dont get any more games I will be more than happy ,

I paid to get a good TV set and the picture on Setanta is like watching someone play a game of Subbuteo as its Macro blocked big time .

Every other station is crystal clear

redout

I wonder with the extra 23 games on Sky will they up the charge for the Sports pack ?

kryogen

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

Well will SKY up there price ? if not then I wont mind ,

As long as Setanta dont get any more games I will be more than happy ,

I paid to get a good TV set and the picture on Setanta is like watching someone play a game of Subbuteo as its Macro blocked big time .

Every other station is crystal clear

oh setanta is a joke!

i wish i could just blow that channel up to be honest

i would think sky will probably increase the price also actually, they can do it again now having pretty much all the packages

maybe they wont cause its a recession and they are feeling like being nice guys?

Minstrel27

kryogen wrote: »

oh setanta is a joke!

i wish i could just blow that channel up to be honest

i would think sky will probably increase the price also actually, they can do it again now having pretty much all the packages

maybe they wont cause its a recession and they are feeling like being nice guys?

They should be lowering the price for Sky Sports in this country at least. We already pay much more than those in the UK for Sky Sports.

pistolpetes11

If Sky up the price there will be massive pressure on ESPN to lower there price.

Setanta need to look at the pricing for what they offer ,

The viewing quality and Qty of games does not warrant the €15/16 a month.

On a separate note I had to ring them on pricing for a commercial project I am working on and was left pretty gobsmacked at their pricing .

Sky will do you a commercial card with SKY sports 1+2 and all the other normal stations (bar premiums ) for 258 pm per , Bout 15 extra for a movie channel , They had another package with SKY Sports 1,2,3 ESPN , British Eurosport and all the other stations for €358.

Setanta wanted €1 per TV point for the each station SS1 & SS2, we have 400 TV points in this project meaning that it would cost the client €800 pm for setanta alone, no wonder they didnt do too well !

CHD

Doubt Sky will up the price tbh

pistolpetes11

Minstrel27 wrote: »

They should be lowering the price for Sky Sports in this country at least. We already pay much more than those in the UK for Sky Sports.

Thats another days work altogether , and with the exchange rate the way it is at the minute too

Kristopherus

Setanta will have only the 3.00pm Saturday games for Ireland only next season. So its goodbye from me to the robbin b**tards and their 17 yoyos. ESPN will have only 23 games next season so they too can stick their 12 yoyos. Magners League will be shown by RTE/TG4 from next season so that leaves Setanta with a very bare shelf. Now if Chorus/NTL could only improve their digital service, one could two-finger Sky as well.

kryogen

i actually despise Ntl

redout

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

Setanta wanted €1 per TV point for the each station SS1 & SS2, we have 400 TV points in this project meaning that it would cost the client €800 pm for setanta alone, no wonder they didnt do too well !

Christ, we talking a hotel here ?

Setanta is rubbish quality for football, akin to TV3 imo.

pistolpetes11

redout wrote: »

Christ, we talking a hotel here ?

Setanta is rubbish quality for football, akin to TV3 imo.

Nah not a hotel, which makes it even worse plus they wont even be charging the end user for the service !

redout

I dont even bother with ESPN or Setanta.

I have satellite so get all my football that way.

ESPN coverage looks better than Setanta though and they offer HD which is a bonus.

pistolpetes11

redout wrote: »

I dont even bother with ESPN or Setanta.

I have satellite so get all my football that way.

ESPN coverage looks better than Setanta though and they offer HD which is a bonus.

I am thinking of investing in a motorized system myself , only prob is that if I move the dish and the OH is watching the soaps upstairs there will be hell to pay !

ESPN HD is very good , ESPN SD is miles better than setanta but not as good as SKY SD,

redout

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

I am thinking of investing in a motorized system myself , only prob is that if I move the dish and the OH is watching the soaps upstairs there will be hell to pay !

ESPN HD is very good , ESPN SD is miles better than setanta but not as good as SKY SD,

Get a seperate dish for the motor and leave the Sky one as it is.

Problem solved

Zonda999

So which package does espn now have? Monday night games or what? This might be a good thing yet surely because sky will have more games yet, the cost of having sky sports alone will be less compared to having sky sports and espn this season?

Ush1

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

Well will SKY up there price ? if not then I wont mind ,

As long as Setanta dont get any more games I will be more than happy ,

I paid to get a good TV set and the picture on Setanta is like watching someone play a game of Subbuteo as its Macro blocked big time .

Every other station is crystal clear

Sky will never be showing the 3pm Saturday games, so Setanta will most likely always get them.

everdead.ie

Zonda999 wrote: »

So which package does espn now have? Monday night games or what? This might be a good thing yet surely because sky will have more games yet, the cost of having sky sports alone will be less compared to having sky sports and espn this season?

Sky have gained the monday night matches but Setanta will keep the 3pm fixtures for Ireland they can't show 3pm games in England as there afraid people will stay home and watch that instead of heading to support there local teams it's not just to do with the premier league there afraid it could effect all the teams right down the leagues.

dubmick

Kristopherus wrote: »

Setanta will have only the 3.00pm Saturday games for Ireland only next season.

is this not what they have at the moment? unless you are talking about the FA Cup

Minstrel27

Ush1 wrote: »

Sky will never be showing the 3pm Saturday games, so Setanta will most likely always get them.

There is nothing to stop them having an opt out for Ireland when Soccer Saturday is on Sky Sports 1. Irish and UK viewers already watch different feeds for adverts reasons, so a change to programming here would have absolutely no affect to viewers in the UK.

Sky bid for 3pm games this time but were beaten by Setanta.

That_Guy

Surely if the Magners League will be shown on terrestial channels then Setanta should become free soon no?

They really have nothing to offer bar the 3pm Saturday kick off's.

TonyD79

Sure wont Sky just bring back their pay per view service they had 3 years ago.Setanta & then ESPN basically took those games. Think it was €50 for the whole season which turned out way cheaper than having to sign up and give 30 days writtin notice etc to selotanta!!!

pistolpetes11

Ush1 wrote: »

Sky will never be showing the 3pm Saturday games, so Setanta will most likely always get them.

I am sure ESPN could go for them ?

And as stated they could be shown here by SKY but not in the UK, but would it be financially viable with the amount of people that would be on the SKY platform in Ireland compared to the UK.

Ush1

So Sky would have to pay quite abit more money just to give Irish customers an extra game each week? Not sure they'd go for that.

Ush1

Minstrel27 wrote: »

There is nothing to stop them having an opt out for Ireland when Soccer Saturday is on Sky Sports 1. Irish and UK viewers already watch different feeds for adverts reasons, so a change to programming here would have absolutely no affect to viewers in the UK.

Sky bid for 3pm games this time but were beaten by Setanta.

Says it all really, they obviously don't care about the 3pm Saturday games as they can't be shown in England.

Warper

I have ESPN paying €12 pm on top of SKY and its barely justifiable this year. So bascially next season they will be showing a PL match every 2 weeks which is crap. ESPN from Mon-Fri is non-existent - it is just full of repeats. I watch the odd Serie A/Bundesliga match which is fine but Irish customers dont even get the rights to the Europa League. Fair enough they will have the FA Cup next year but in fairness the FA Cup isnt appealing anymore. The addition of the Rugby Premiership means fcuk all in Ireland and most people have the access to it via Sky anyways.

Nehaxak

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

I am thinking of investing in a motorized system myself , only prob is that if I move the dish and the OH is watching the soaps upstairs there will be hell to pay !

ESPN HD is very good , ESPN SD is miles better than setanta but not as good as SKY SD,

Get yourself a wave frontier dish, bit odd looking (and bigger) compared to the sky dish but there's no motor needed. They're a right arse to install yourself (though a lot of fun if that's what takes you) but are bloody fantastic once it's all set-up.

Basically it's just one weird looking dish with a much smaller dish on the front, with a load of LNB's tuned to different satellites. So no moving of the dish needed at all.
You'll probably end up mostly watching hotbird and astra satellites for the football anyway or the one for Norway (Thor I think it's called) which shows a load of English games.
So really you'll be needing 4 satellites at the most, 28.2East (the one Sky Ireland/UK is shown on), Thor @ 0.8West, plus Hotbirds and Astra at 13E and 19.2E - they are what you'll get the most from anyway.

You might not even need a wave frontier at all, it might all be possible on a normal 80Cm dish with a special bracket, decent LNB's and a good installer.
At least the 28.2E, 19.2E and 13E should all be possible with a bracket, LNB and an 80cm dish + good installer.

Nehaxak

Quick search, this is probably all you need http://www.satellitesuperstore.com/multisat.htm

They're a decent crowd to deal with also if you want to try this yourself, have bought from them in the past.

Liam O

tbh, if the UFC continues it's rise in popularity they could justify whatever the price of a monthly sub is as if that was on Sky they would charge about 20 odd euro a month for each event

pistolpetes11

Nehaxak wrote: »

Quick search, this is probably all you need http://www.satellitesuperstore.com/multisat.htm

They're a decent crowd to deal with also if you want to try this yourself, have bought from them in the past.

Cheers for all that info , going to way up the options over the next few days and see which looks the best for me

Helix

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

I am thinking of investing in a motorized system myself , only prob is that if I move the dish and the OH is watching the soaps upstairs there will be hell to pay !

ESPN HD is very good , ESPN SD is miles better than setanta but not as good as SKY SD,

get an FTA box for herself, and stick your setup in seperately

Bubs101

Liam O wrote: »

tbh, if the UFC continues it's rise in popularity they could justify whatever the price of a monthly sub is as if that was on Sky they would charge about 20 odd euro a month for each event

It's a phenomenal deal because of the UFC and the odd football match thrown in. Considering just how popular it is in England it's still a very good price