Sports Extra (TNT/Premier)

joe_99

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/sky-agrees-deal-to-make-bt-sport-available-to-its-irish-subscribers-1.3681041?mode=amp

Eir lose BT Sport to Sky. Big blow to eir Sports. Pro 14 is all they have left. Not an attractive option for non eir customers. Rugby fans back to needing 2 packages.

Tigerandahalf

joe_99 wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/sky-agrees-deal-to-make-bt-sport-available-to-its-irish-subscribers-1.3681041?mode=amp

Eir lose BT Sport to Sky. Big blow to eir Sports. Pro 14 is all they have left. Not an attractive option for non eir customers. Rugby fans back to needing 2 packages.

No way am I subscribing to Sky just so I can watch the Heineken Cup.
Now tv is down to €39 p/m for a sports pass and I may just subscribe for the months the Heineken Cup is on which would be Oct, Dec, Jan, April and May I think.
A lot of the sport passes I got recently were only €20 p/m.

It is a huge blow for eir subscribers as the Champions League will also be gone.

channelsurfer2

devil will be in the detail. with Eir its "free". With Sky it wont be.....

joe_99

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

devil will be in the detail. with Eir its "free". With Sky it wont be.....

Looks like it will be included in the sky sports package. Hopefully it won't cost anything extra. It's a move back to one package covering most of our sporting needs.

Tigerandahalf

joe_99 wrote: »

Looks like it will be included in the sky sports package. Hopefully it won't cost anything extra. It's a move back to one package covering most of our sporting needs.

It will definitely cost extra. €100 p/m for tv and sport in hd?

Plus you don't have la liga, serie a or ufc.

joe_99

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

It will definitely cost extra. €100 p/m for tv and sport in hd?

Plus you don't have la liga, serie a or ufc.

Extra for a current Sky Sports customer? At the moment I buy Sky Sports and BT Sport separately. I don't have eir broadband so people like me will see a big difference. La Liga and Serie A are currently not available on eir so no change there. All I will lose of note is Pro 14.

Delta2113

Eir should sell it's Sports to Virgin Media (merge Eir Sport into Virgin Media Sport) and as part off agreement get to carry Virgin Media Sport.

joe_99

Delta2113 wrote: »

Eir should sell it's Sports to Virgin Media (merge Eir Sport into Virgin Media Sport) and as part off agreement get to carry Virgin Media Sport.

I think they will need to do something like that. The Irish market is too small for eir and Virgin. Especially with BT and Sky signing up sports rights on a UK and Ireland basis.

irishfeen

Disaster tbh, Sky Sports is ridiculously overpriced and now we can expect another hike, Eir in a bit of trouble now, apart from Rugby almost everything else is gone!

Tigerandahalf

irishfeen wrote: »

Disaster tbh, Sky Sports is ridiculously overpriced and now we can expect another hike, Eir in a bit of trouble now, apart from Rugby almost everything else is gone!

Eir will have to go after the GAA championship. There is nothing left for them. I don't think the pro14 is attractive enough for the average fan.

Elmo

I'd question the need for either eir or Virgin sport channels if Sky/BT is available on both platforms. There is such few exclusive rights on either channel. Does Virgin have any exclusive rights?

irishfeen

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

Eir will have to go after the GAA championship. There is nothing left for them. I don't think the pro14 is attractive enough for the average fan.

Unless they go FTA then I don’t think the GAA are going to give away any more games, there is massive anger at grassroots at the sky deal.

Davexirl

We would all love if Sky added it on for free, but I cannot see that happening.

I just left Virgin Broadband to move to Eir so I could get Eir/BT sports for free, instead of paying €29.99 separately. I haven't signed up yet as only gave my 30 day's notice to VM, might look at other BB providers now.

bennyl10

irishfeen wrote: »

Unless they go FTA then I don’t think the GAA are going to give away any more games, there is massive anger at grassroots at the sky deal.

Eir have to do something with FTA anyway, because the rwc next year has to be FTA in ireland

icdg

A massive blow for eir, certainly for anyone who wasn’t subscribing primarily for the rugby. (And for those who were - almost €30pm for the Pro14 alone is very steep).

So what can eir do? (The GAA championship is not up for grabs till 2022). The biggest hope for them now is to make that call (or walk across the room, rather) to their friends at Premier Sports and lock down the 3pm Premier League games and Amazon fixtures. And look at that price. The Pro14’s not a valuable enough property to get away with a €30 per month charge when Premier is offering it for a third of that price in GB.

And indeed, don’t rule eir selling the sports operation back to Premier if subscribers desert in numbers.

bennyl10

icdg wrote: »

A massive blow for eir, certainly for anyone who wasn’t subscribing primarily for the rugby. (And for those who were - almost €30pm for the Pro14 alone is very steep).

So what can eir do? (The GAA championship is not up for grabs till 2022). The biggest hope for them now is to make that call (or walk across the room, rather) to their friends at Premier Sports and lock down the 3pm Premier League games and Amazon fixtures. And look at that price. The Pro14’s not a valuable enough property to get away with a €30 per month charge when Premier is offering it for a third of that price in GB.

And indeed, don’t rule eir selling the sports operation back to Premier if subscribers desert in numbers.

they'll stay for a year, because they have the world up with it(unless they sell that to rte/tv3) after that.. ya they world cup could be a bye bye event

Johnboy1951

This makes me a very sorry customer of eir, as I signed up with them purely to get the 'sports channels', knowing I am paying a small premium monthly.

Ugh!

irishfeen

Davexirl wrote: »

We would all love if Sky added it on for free, but I cannot see that happening.

I just left Virgin Broadband to move to Eir so I could get Eir/BT sports for free, instead of paying €29.99 separately. I haven't signed up yet as only gave my 30 day's notice to VM, might look at other BB providers now.

Talks of sky joining the openeir FTTH network, all this could eventually be part of a Quad package.

icdg

icdg wrote: »

A massive blow for eir, certainly for anyone who wasn’t subscribing primarily for the rugby. (And for those who were - almost €30pm for the Pro14 alone is very steep).

So what can eir do? (The GAA championship is not up for grabs till 2022). The biggest hope for them now is to make that call (or walk across the room, rather) to their friends at Premier Sports and lock down the 3pm Premier League games and Amazon fixtures. And look at that price. The Pro14’s not a valuable enough property to get away with a €30 per month charge when Premier is offering it for a third of that price in GB.

And indeed, don’t rule eir selling the sports operation back to Premier if subscribers desert in numbers.

Didn't they do this type of thing once when Eircom carried Setanta Sports via their website at no extra cost for Eircom BB subscribers and then they dropped it? Awful news this is. Standalone Eir BB is €53pm. It was nice to get the Eir/BT pack at no extra charge and in HD too. Whatever about the Eir channels, the BT channels going is a big blow. Rugby fans in particular will be looking closely at their options for next year.

dulpit

This makes me sad. If Sky went for competitive pricing then their offering could be compelling, but I can't see that happening..

eirman

"New arrangement will be in place ahead of the beginning of the next English football season"

I don't watch soccer so I have no idea when this might be.
Does anyone have an approximate termination date of free BT Sport for Eir customers?

lertsnim

Sky Sports, BT Sport, Eir Sport, Virgin Sport, Eleven Sports all with separate subscriptions. It's a piss take.

icdg

eirman wrote: »

"New arrangement will be in place ahead of the beginning of the next English football season"

I don't watch soccer so I have no idea when this might be.
Does anyone have an approximate termination date of free BT Sport for Eir customers?

31st July 2019 is when the deal runs out afaik.

Just on the RWC, eir will need to sublicense a pack including Ireland’s games to a qualifying broadcaster. Simply broadcasting them FTV won’t satisfy the requirement, they’d need to be on both Saorview and Virgin too.

gordongekko

icdg wrote: »

31st July 2019 is when the deal runs out afaik.

Just on the RWC, eir will need to sublicense a pack including Ireland’s games to a qualifying broadcaster. Simply broadcasting them FTV won’t satisfy the requirement, they’d need to be on both Saorview and Virgin too.

Why would they need to be on virgin?

browne_rob5

I literally got EIR installed yesterday as it had all of the rugby ffs

joe_99

lertsnim wrote: »

Sky Sports, BT Sport, Eir Sport, Virgin Sport, Eleven Sports all with separate subscriptions. It's a piss take.

Sky Sports and BT Sport will be one package.

eirman

lertsnim wrote: »

Sky Sports, BT Sport, Eir Sport, Virgin Sport, Eleven Sports all with separate subscriptions. It's a piss take.

You forgot to include the Discovery Golf Channel in your list.
(I think ROI/UK will need it from 2022)

Tigerandahalf

Eir sports could be screwed if rte/virgin don't buy the Irish rugby rights.
How would they make them free to air then?
Would it have to be on the saorview platform?

Under the terms of this new agreement, does it mean that the BT channels can't be subscribed to on their own? Will you have to take the basic Sky sub before you can get BT, like it is with Sky Sports?

Tigerandahalf

In the UK the deal is that you have just the one bill/subscription. We don't know the finer points but I'd say Sky and BT would be pushing people to sign upto both so that they both can maximise revenue.