I hope Jake Humphrey dies a slow and painful death.
In the beginning there was Sky Sports. They paid gazillions of money to various football organisations, including the Premier League, for the rights to cover the matches. They then charged subscribers a reasonable amount of money in order to view the matches. They came to an agreement with Virgin Media that cable customers including myself would also be able to view the Sky matches for a reasonably-priced upgrade. Everyone was happy and this blissful state of affairs continued for a few years.
Then the bureaucrats in Brussels decided that it was wrong that BSkyB had monopoly coverage of Premier League matches, and other parties must get in on the action. So then we had Setanta, who went bust, folowed by ESPN. Sky subscribers had to pay extra for the matches covered by Setanta/ESPN, so the result of the EU intervention was that the viewing public had to stump up more money.
I was lucky because kindly Mr. Richard Branson decided that Virgin Media subscribers would be given the Setanta/ESPN feeds at no extra cost!
Now playground bully BT has taken over these non-Sky matches and, holding me tightly by the lapels, have said that unless I switch to their poxy broadband service, I won't be able to see their matches at all. They can fuck right off. There's no way Jake Humphrey is going to bully me into changing my broadband provider by that kind of blackmail. I would rather miss the matches.
(Actually, Vlad's Quiff already has BT Broadband so for Liverpool matches I can go round to his house!)
In the beginning there was Sky Sports. They paid gazillions of money to various football organisations, including the Premier League, for the rights to cover the matches. They then charged subscribers a reasonable amount of money in order to view the matches. They came to an agreement with Virgin Media that cable customers including myself would also be able to view the Sky matches for a reasonably-priced upgrade. Everyone was happy and this blissful state of affairs continued for a few years.
Then the bureaucrats in Brussels decided that it was wrong that BSkyB had monopoly coverage of Premier League matches, and other parties must get in on the action. So then we had Setanta, who went bust, folowed by ESPN. Sky subscribers had to pay extra for the matches covered by Setanta/ESPN, so the result of the EU intervention was that the viewing public had to stump up more money.
I was lucky because kindly Mr. Richard Branson decided that Virgin Media subscribers would be given the Setanta/ESPN feeds at no extra cost!
Now playground bully BT has taken over these non-Sky matches and, holding me tightly by the lapels, have said that unless I switch to their poxy broadband service, I won't be able to see their matches at all. They can fuck right off. There's no way Jake Humphrey is going to bully me into changing my broadband provider by that kind of blackmail. I would rather miss the matches.
(Actually, Vlad's Quiff already has BT Broadband so for Liverpool matches I can go round to his house!)
