Sports Extra (TNT/Premier)

Tigerandahalf

I signed up to BT Sports/Premier Sports on Now TV. It was a 17eur a month deal but you had to agree to pay each sub up until next June I think.

I am beginning to wonder are they going to leave us high and dry if Premier is removed from NowTV? Is there not a contract in place for it to be carried on NowTV?

lertsnim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119759782#Comment_119759782

No. Their game with Manchester City is postponed as they play PSV in the Europa League on Thursday in the game that was postponed after Britain's queen died.

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119759782#Comment_119759782

Correct on the first point, and Arsenal v Man City was postponed to accommodate Arsenal v PSV Eindhoven in the Europa League on Thursday.

edit: lertsnim answered the Q seconds before me.

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119759822#Comment_119759822

No suggestion that is going to happen - yet.

My presumption is that Viaplay are tied into the Sports Extra deal for a period, probably at least this season and possibly until 2025, and therefore can’t launch their D2C service in Ireland just like Premier couldn’t offer the Premier Player here.

What I suspect will be that we will get the rebranded linear channels (Viaplay Sport 1 & 2, but probably not Viaplay Xtra) as part of the Sports Extra pack, but no OTT service until the Sports Extra deal expires, possible at the end of July 2025. Unfortunately that probably means us missing out on content again. That’s only my speculation though. I wish they’d say something about it with the changeover being two weeks away. They aren’t mentioning Ireland at all and seem to be pretending we don’t exist.

The other alternative is that Setanta have held on to the Irish operation. I don’t think that’s the case though as apparently all remaining employees are moving to Viaplay.

Perhaps Eoin McDevitt might shed some light during the FAPL coverage this week. Maybe not.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119759818#Comment_119759818

Now TV is a streaming service and if you subscribe through sky you have access to the channels on Sky Go... There is also no reason why we don't have access to the on demand section of the streaming services only for we in Ireland are an after thought in that regard

lertsnim

Now TV doesn't give access to all that the content available on BT or Premier Sport so Irish viewers are being short changed no matter the platform they subscribe to.

fman

Actively promoting the red button on coverage now..... But pressing red button brings up the menu type page with no actual choices. Also red button wasn't clickable during ad break.

dublinman1990

I see there in the press release on Viaplay launch in the UK; there is no mention of the UK rights to the matches played by The Republic of Ireland team's European Qualifiers for EURO 2024 and beyond that. If Viaplay mention The Republic of Ireland as a separate country if they get to launch their channels here; Would they still say that they have the exclusive rights to broadcast these matches in the UK as well as having the non-exclusive rights to broadcast the matches alongside RTÉ in a separate press release to Irish subscribers?

Acosta

The red button took a few attempts before I got it to work. The picture quality is awful.

iseegirls

So frustrating that they haven't switched over to the other match now, especially with them having access to so many games.

Wasted opportunity really. Its a pity VM didn't make a play for recent rights (if they were available), especially as they have the channels to show multiple games.

The next batch of Amazon games will be on Dec 26th and 27th. They should be spread out a bit better time wise, so will see how Premier Sports cope with them

icdg

Unfortunate that this problem seems to befall Premier Sports virtually every time the Amazon Round crops up - this is their fourth season and you’d think they’d have gotten it right by this stage.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119760090#Comment_119760090

That's true, I find most of that stuff is available on youtube anyway so that doesn't bother me too much. I'm also paying €10 per month for NowTV sports extra... I think BT in the UK starts at £25per month so there's a huge gap in price also

martyos121

Any word since on BT Ultimate being made available on Sky or have they quietly brushed that aside?

Naked Lepper

any chance BT Box office can come to now?

I want to watch UFC this weekend but only have Virgin Media TV and then NOW TV Sports and Sports Extra

so frustrating

Dodge

That’s never going to happen. In the UK you can subscribe directly for BT PPV on their website so they won’t allow another streaming platform to re-sell it. The Irish market is of little concern to them

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119774585#Comment_119774585

Nobody’s really clear what’s happening there and BT Sport doesn’t really exist as an entity anymore, it is under the operational control of WBD now and at some time down the road the JV will publically launch its new offering.

lertsnim

The price of the UFC event on BT Box Office this weekend here compared to the UK is scandalous. £19.95 vs €29.99 here. €7 euro more on the current exchange.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119775077#Comment_119775077

If you have a reliable VPN then SSport+ cover UFC for about €2 a month, see the first few pages here to sign up

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058153263/premiership-f1-ufc-liga-bliga-nfl-nba-cev-2euro-month-see-op/p1

lertsnim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119775457#Comment_119775457

Yes I already have it. Just highlighting how much we are ripped off over here.

icdg

There is no discussion of circumventing regional restrictions here. Forum charters differ from forum to forum and what May be acceptable in one forum may not be in another.

icdg

For those interest Premier Sports 3pm pick on Saturday, possibly the last under the Premier Sports name, is Newcastle v Aston Villa.

According to the Sky EPG anyway, getting information about what is happening to Premier Sports in the Irish market is like blood from a stone. Information now up on their website about the Viaplay rebrand but still nothing about Ireland.

Dodge

There’s a line in the Viaplay FAQ that states

“Content can only be watched within the UK.”

It probably is just an over cautious statement but Ireland being completely ignored in all Viaplay statements is definitely noteworthy

icdg

The GAA stuff has been split off to a new thread.

Meanwhile, did you know it was pronounced “Voyaplay” not “Vee-a play”. You learn something new every day

https://twitter.com/premiersportstv/status/1584493119298379779?s=46&t=BhLCj9N1EhnA70sae7uI0A

mike2084

Sent a tweet tagging Viaplay, Premier and Sky Ireland to see if they will explain what's going to happen here on Nov 1st - if they've even thought about it. Just basically seeing if they will even answer.

dublinman1990

There is also a new brief advert telling viewers that the UK feed of FreeSports will be changing over to Viaplay on November 1st. However it is nothing like what was shown on the Twitter link from PS above.

Is that new ad from the Twitter post also shown on PS Ireland or is it UK only?

icdg

They have the same ads, mostly. There is nothing different about the U.K. and Irish channels other than Premier League coverage being blocked in the U.K. and GAA coverage being blocked in ROI (and NI too I think).

Thats why it was a bit of a fallacy to talk about “Premier Sports Ireland” or “Premier Sports U.K.” as if they were two separate entities. They were essentially one and the same outside of FAPL and GAA. Not even separate advertising. For the first few months of their FAPL coverage in 2019 they showed U.K. adverts during matches containing ads for products that the viewership couldn’t purchase eg BT Broadband. The whole operation was based out of Dublin.

mike2084

Reply received from Premier:

https://twitter.com/PremierSportsTV/status/1584822711523897345?s=20&t=tbFfVxNtnmEaGIwG5Ea-gw

Wonder if viaplay is even going to launch here in that case?

icdg

Now that is an interesting one. Will they be separately programmed or are we looking at a return of a Setanta Sports 1/Premier Sports 2014-2019 split personality type situation? Who is running them if the staff are all gone over to Viaplay? Still Setanta or Viaplay in disguise? Most importantly what happens with the huge portfolio of shared rights?

lertsnim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119790336#Comment_119790336

Hopefully we will start getting 3pm games on both channels, one from England and one from Spain.

channelsurfer2

so no rebrand here? all very confusing?