Champions League on pay TV only?

flazio

I'd say it's business as usual, if someone like Setanta or UTVI had snapped the rights away, they'd be making a song and dance about it as quickly as possible.

icdg

They might not know yet. AFAIK its a sealed bidding process. I agree that status quo is the most likely outcome and I don't see UTV as even being interested. In fact I'd imagine that bids probably didn't even come in from anyone but the existing rights holders and possibly BT.

They also won't be allowed say anything without UEFA's say so. There's a UEFA board meeting on 4th December and contracts may need to go before it for approval.

irishfeen

icdg wrote: »

They might not know yet. AFAIK its a sealed bidding process. I agree that status quo is the most likely outcome and I don't see UTV as even being interested. In fact I'd imagine that bids probably didn't even come in from anyone but the existing rights holders and possibly BT.

They also won't be allowed say anything without UEFA's say so. There's a UEFA board meeting on 4th December and contracts may need to go before it for approval.

Is their a second round of bidding akin to Premier League rights do you know? Or is the first bid the final bid from a broadcaster?

channelsurfer2

next week some time then for an outcome?

icdg

irishfeen wrote: »

Is their a second round of bidding akin to Premier League rights do you know? Or is the first bid the final bid from a broadcaster?

Not sure, all it that would be in the RFT (or ISO as I think UEFA call it)

I reckon we'll hear Thursday or Friday of next week but that's only an educated guess.

icdg

er okay, not sure what that was all about

Guffy

ha ha wrong thread apologies, I was wondering where the hell it was!!

icdg

Amid speculation over on the BT thread there's an article in today's Times, but it says nothing really.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/uefa-champions-league-rights-up-for-grabs-1.2024067

Elmo

icdg wrote: »

Amid speculation over on the BT thread there's an article in today's Times, but it says nothing really.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/uefa-champions-league-rights-up-for-grabs-1.2024067

I don't know about Irish Times reporters. Could she not have rang UTV, BT Sport, Sky Sports etc to find out if they put a bid in or not.

channelsurfer2

while there is no official announcement if the Dutch rights are anything to go by the successful bidders for Ireland are known to each other and are in a period of finalising the contracts before the official announcement. the dutch rights closing date was the 24th while the irish date was the 25th. Should here very soon if indeed Setanta has got the Tuesday rights.

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/12/sbs-sanoma-win-dutch-champions-league-rights-for-television-and-digital.php/

ftakeith

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

while there is no official announcement if the Dutch rights are anything to go by the successful bidders for Ireland are known to each other and are in a period of finalising the contracts before the official announcement. the dutch rights closing date was the 24th while the irish date was the 25th. Should here very soon if indeed Setanta has got the Tuesday rights.

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/12/sbs-sanoma-win-dutch-champions-league-rights-for-television-and-digital.php/

I agree I hope Setanta Sports on tuesday and Rtetv on wednesday for the main irish live rights
BT Sport maybe gets the other games as non exclusive rights

irishfeen

I assume we could see Ireland being announced as early as tomorrow.. Hopefully games remain FTA both Tue and Wen nights.

irishfeen

RTÉ retains Wen night CL games great news

https://twitter.com/rtesoccer/status/543362551002980352

channelsurfer2

tuesday night any news?

irishfeen

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

tuesday night any news?

Can't seem to find info on Tue night at all.. Maybe it's gone to a second round of bidding.

icdg

Odd that it all hasn't been announced together...

channelsurfer2

icdg wrote: »

Odd that it all hasn't been announced together...

yes strange. nothing on the uefa website either. if it is Setanta then expect another tv3 sting about having bid competively but uefa chose pay tv over free to air etc.....

The Cush

icdg wrote: »

Odd that it all hasn't been announced together...

Hasn't been officially announced on the UEFA website yet, first appeared on RTÉ's site about a half hour ago - http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/champions-league/2014/1212/666397-rte-sport-announce-new-champions-lge-rights-deal/

irishfeen

icdg wrote: »

Odd that it all hasn't been announced together...

As I said - it could have been too close between broadcasters (maybe TV3, Setanta, UTVI who knows) and UEFA have decided to hold a second round.

ftakeith

Unconfirmed but it appears UTVireland have made a bid for tuesdays games
But TV3, setanta/BT sport have also bid

So its getting interesting
after 5pm we might know the outcome

irishfeen

ftakeith wrote: »

Unconfirmed but it appears UTVireland have made a bid for tuesdays games
But TV3, setanta/BT sport have also bid

So its getting interesting
after 5pm we might know the outcome

Where are you hearing that UTVI are involved Keith? Very interesting if true.

channelsurfer2

so that could be the holdup. keith seems to be on the ball with the news!

irishfeen

If UTVI does win rights it would be a massive coup - CL with possibly United involved again is big big business here.

icdg

That'd be very interesting, though given UTV's sporting record over the last five years I'll believe it when I see it. That said the silence out of Ballymount would seem to indicate that all has not gone to plan with their renewal of the rights.

channelsurfer2

It would be a nice fit for UTV Irl alright, although as you say I cant see it being them, probably will be Setanta seeing as TV3 are quiet.

Elmo

RTÉ retain their rights http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2014/1212/666407-rte-retain-comprehensive-uefa-champions-league-rights-until-2018/

channelsurfer2

No annoucement yet? Looks like the scenario was RTE had no heavy competition for wednesday.

iseegirls

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

No annoucement yet? Looks like the scenario was RTE had no heavy competition for wednesday.

May mean that TV3 didn't want CL on a Wednesday night, as they were planning to put Red Rock there.

icdg

All the same you'd expect to have heard who is getting the pay-TV rights which were likely to have been a one horse race with that horse being either BT or Setanta. Notwithstanding that the BT UK deal was announced on a Saturday morning I'd say it'll be next week before we hear now.

Elmo

iseegirls wrote: »

May mean that TV3 didn't want CL on a Wednesday night, as they were planning to put Red Rock there.

They control their schedule a big hitter to lead into a soap would retain some viewers. Same goes for Sundays and Xfactor.

icdg

Also remember that Wednesday is difficult from an ITV network point of view, which if UTV did bid (and I'm not convinced they did) would have influenced their choice of night also.

Elmo

Will be diffucult for them to explain to their NI viewers that they won't have access to those games on UTV NI!

icdg

No more difficult than explaining to their ROI viewers why they won't be able to watch ITV's European Qualifier coverage any more (and yes, these games do attract interest here!)

lertsnim

Elmo wrote: »

Will be diffucult for them to explain to their NI viewers that they won't have access to those games on UTV NI!

Quite simple really. They don't have the rights for UTV NI. Most people will know these are separate channels.

radiowaves

icdg wrote: »

No more difficult than explaining to their ROI viewers why they won't be able to watch ITV's European Qualifier coverage any more (and yes, these games do attract interest here!)

Last I looked all the ITV regions (including UTV) will continue to be receivable here on FTA satellite; and UTV and HTV on terrestrial overspill to a decent landmass - unless you know something the rest of us don't

Elmo

radiowaves wrote: »

Last I looked all the ITV regions (including UTV) will continue to be receivable here on FTA satellite; and UTV and HTV on terrestrial overspill to a decent landmass - unless you know something the rest of us don't

I think he means on UPC and on UTV Ireland which replaces UTV NI.

radiowaves

Elmo wrote: »

I think he means on UPC and on UTV Ireland which replaces UTV NI.

Well he said "RoI viewers" (without platform specification)

icdg

I'm a UPC viewer, so naturally I look at things with that point of view. But because ITV is not on the Sky EPG there will be a good lot of Sky viewers who don't know how to access Other Channels either. We have an interest and knowledge here but shouldn't assume the "man on the street" knows how to access a feature Sky don't publicise or document.

radiowaves

icdg wrote: »

I'm a UPC viewer, so naturally I look at things with that point of view. But because ITV is not on the Sky EPG there will be a good lot of Sky viewers who don't know how to access Other Channels either. We have an interest and knowledge here but shouldn't assume the "man on the street" knows how to access a feature Sky don't publicise or document.

I wasn't requiring a lecture; the term you used (RoI viewers) was erroneous. If you meant exclusively UPC viewers that's what you should've said.

Anyone using ITV or UTV using any other method will not be losing access to anything.

Bringing up the Other Channels feature is irrelevant, as is references to men on the street, because anybody viewing using that method won't be losing access to any ITV programming either. So, obviously there's nothing to "explain" to those that do have it and those that don't have it will obviously not be losing anything as they don't already have it.

Not to mention the fact that there are other ways to receive FTA satellite channels than using the Other Channels feature of a Sky receiver (and they won't be losing access either).

Infoanon

icdg wrote: »

I'm a UPC viewer, so naturally I look at things with that point of view. But because ITV is not on the Sky EPG there will be a good lot of Sky viewers who don't know how to access Other Channels either. We have an interest and knowledge here but shouldn't assume the "man on the street" knows how to access a feature Sky don't publicise or document.

I would think the majority of Sky subscribers know how to access other channels, Sky installers tend to add the ITVs and Channel 5 for customers as part of the installation.

The point is however valid for UPC subscribers.

The story behind the delay of the Tuesday night rights could be interesting.

radiowaves

Infoanon wrote: »

I would think the majority of Sky subscribers know how to access other channels, Sky installers tend to add the ITVs and Channel 5 for customers as part of the installation.

And Sky used to advertise other channels availability in all their promotional material (not sure if they still do) but it's a moot point: anyone with ITV in other channels won't be losing access to it and anybody who doesn't know how to access Other Channels doesn't have ITV to lose it...

Infoanon wrote: »

The point is however valid for UPC subscribers.

I certainly amn't arguing that; just the assertion that explanations would need to be made to "their RoI viewers".

Elmo

Back to Champions League.

Last time round were Tuesday and Wednesday night right announced at the same time?

RED L4 0TH

Elmo wrote: »

Back to Champions League.

Last time round were Tuesday and Wednesday night right announced at the same time?

Seems so, 30 April 2012. TV3 & RTE awarded 2012-2015 rights.

They both made announcements that day:

http://www.tv3.ie/pr_sub.php?type=2&view_pr=220

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2012/0430/319029-sdwd/

In fact TV3 seemed first out of the blocks, issuing their statement at 10.44am, as opposed to RTE at 2.23pm.

Interesting whats going on this time round in contrast.

The Cush

RED L4 0TH wrote: »

Seems so, 30 April 2012. TV3 & RTE awarded 2012-2015 rights.

They both made announcements that day

Also on that day UEFA made its announcement - http://www.uefa.org/mediaservices/mediainformation/newsid=1790780.html

Maybe this time around RTÉ has jumped the gun by announcing early.

RED L4 0TH wrote: »

In fact TV3 seemed first out of the blocks, issuing their statement at 10.44am, as opposed to RTE at 2.23pm.

The RTÉ page was last updated at 14:23 but was most likely published earlier.

flazio

If UTV Ireland get the rights, would they most likely use their own team for commentary or use the team ITV will be sending for their highlights package?

lertsnim

flazio wrote: »

If UTV Ireland get the rights, would they most likely use their own team for commentary or use the team ITV will be sending for their highlights package?

It's possible they would use the international commentary.

Elmo

One thing that people forget is that while UTV NI dropped most of its own sports coverage UTV itself owns TalkSport, so it has some experience in sporting rights.

irishfeen

Its surprising that it's taking so long for Tue night rights to be announced - it's almost certain that UEFA have requested a second round of bidding because one set or all tendered amounts for Tue nights have been very close. It is probably a major surprise for UEFA themselves that there is so much competition for Irish rights. If UTVI do pull through and win rights it will be an absolute disaster for TV3 - they would be left with almost nothing worth while.

Elmo

irishfeen wrote: »

Its surprising that it's taking so long for Tue night rights to be announced - it's almost certain that UEFA have requested a second round of bidding because one set or all tendered amounts for Tue nights have been very close. It is probably a major surprise for UEFA themselves that there is so much competition for Irish rights. If UTVI do pull through and win rights it will be an absolute disaster for TV3 - they would be left with almost nothing worth while.

TBH it will be key for both looking at UTV's schedule so far.

irishfeen

Elmo wrote: »

TBH it will be key for both looking at UTV's schedule so far.

They have Emmerdale and Coronation street which means they have more then enough to get by - in the long term they will need more but in 2015 they will be fine.