No more champions league...

[redhorizon2]

Champions League: BT Sport win £897m football rights deal

By Dan RoanBBC chief sports correspondent
BT Sport has announced an exclusive £897m three-year deal which will end two decades of live Champions League football on terrestrial TV.
The broadcaster has won the rights to show all 350 matches each season from 2015 after talks with European governing body Uefa.
A spokesman said it had "shaken up the UK TV market" and would make the final and selected matches free to air.
The news is a major blow to Sky and ITV, who currently share the rights.
It is the first time a single UK broadcaster has won the exclusive live rights to all matches from the two tournaments, BT announced in a statement.
BT Sport deal highlights

• Three-year deal costing £897m
• All 350 matches in the Champions League and Europa League broadcast live each season from 2015
• First time a single UK broadcaster has won the exclusive live rights
• Champions League final will be shown for free from 2015
• At least one match involving each participating British team for free every season

Chief executive Gavin Patterson said: "I am thrilled that BT Sport will be the only place where fans can enjoy all the live action from the Champions League and Europa League."
The contract, priced at £299m a season, is worth more than double the current arrangement, which could mean significantly more money for clubs in the two European competitions.
As part of the deal, BT has said it will show at least one match involving each participating British team for free every season.
BT launched its UK sports channels on 1 August 2013 in a challenge to the dominance of sports coverage on Sky.
Sky has previously fended off competition from other broadcasters, such as ITV Digital, Setanta and ESPN, after they all entered the pay-TV football market.
BT has already spent £738m over three years for the rights to show 38 live Premier League matches for the 2012-13 season, while Sky paid £2.3bn for 116 matches a season.
Other events in the BT portfolio include the rights to Premiership Rugby and motorsports such as Moto GP and Nascar, as well as taking over ESPN's UK sports channels.
Only last week, it said more than two million people had subscribed to its television sports channels since August and reported six month pre-tax profits of £948 million.
For its part, Sky announced in October that record numbers had tuned into the start of the football season - with an average audience of 1.55m compared with 1.29m last year.
News of the deal first emerged in Saturday's edition of the Telegraph newspaper, and was confirmed on Twitter by BT Sport at 10:00 GMT.

 

[gkmacca]

That's quite a gamble.

 

[Spionkop69]

Setanta UK anyone....

 

[Fabio]

It might actually pay off....

 

[gkmacca]

It could, but I suspect they'll end up doing what the Beeb did with Formula 1 and negotiate a revised shared deal.

 

[Fabio]

It could, but I suspect they'll end up doing what the Beeb did with Formula 1 and negotiate a revised shared deal.

Probably, if they do though, it'll provide long term stability for a rival to sky sports

That is the most important thing

 

[Mors]

Not sure how that means no more champions league? Doesn't it mean it's on another channel?
I'm not going to pay for it regardless of what channel they put it ont he the robbing bastards, I'll watch it on the net.

 

[Mystic]

How the fuck did Sky let this slip away from them?!

I hate ITV, but i'm kinda fucked off you can't watch it on terrestrial TV anymore.

 

[red_maradona]

I thought competition was supposed to benefit the consumer, but in the case of footie we end up paying more to watch the same thing?

 

[keniget]

Big blow to Sky that. Looks like BT aren't fucking around.

 

[6TimesaRed]

Good.. if this brings down the demise of the Rupert Murdoch empire.. I am all for it..

I sure BT will muster up some sort of deal with Virgin customers.. as it is Sky, BT want to wage a war against not Virgin..

 

[jon545660]

Don't think this is that important to Sky. As long as they've got most prem games they'll be fine. Big blow to ITV though.

 

[Squiggles]

That's a game-changer that, and it will make getting into the CL and even bigger priority.

That god my Mum's a loyal BT customer and Sky Go is free.

 

[MC Golgotha]

BT don't give a shit. All the money they're spunking on sport is being given back to them in billions worth of state subsidies for rural broadband services that they aren't delivering on. And their long game is probably their broadband customer base. The sport is a means unto that end, hence BT Sport being free to Infinity customers.

Even after booking 150m in sports costs in the half year period, they still made a profit of almost a billion quid, and grew their consumer base by over 150,000 (they've been losing customers year on year for over a decade), which is a long term profit boon. They know the traditional telecoms sector is a bust. Loads of young people in their first homes don't bother with landlines. Broadband is where it's at. Football is the lure.

 

[Judge Jules]

I thought competition was supposed to benefit the consumer, but in the case of footie we end up paying more to watch the same thing?

Competition benefits the consumer only for as long as it takes the big fish to chase their competitors away. Then the consumer's Fecked with a capital "F".

 

[keniget]

BT don't give a shit. All the money they're spunking on sport is being given back to them in billions worth of state subsidies for rural broadband services that they aren't delivering on. And their long game is probably their broadband customer base. The sport is a means unto that end, hence BT Sport being free to Infinity customers.

Even after booking 150m in sports costs in the half year period, they still made a profit of almost a billion quid, and grew their consumer base by over 150,000 (they've been losing customers year on year for over a decade), which is a long term profit boon. They know the traditional telecoms sector is a bust. Loads of young people in their first homes don't bother with landlines. Broadband is where it's at. Football is the lure.

Yup. And they're making no bones about that - they've stated it publicly.

 

[KingDing]

Arsed. I've not really watched that many games in it since we've stopped qualifying.

 

[red_maradona]

Competition benefits the consumer only for as long as it takes the big fish to chase their competitors away. Then the consumer's Fecked with a capital "F".

Perennial challenge of capitalism: the need for state intervention to maintain competition.

 

[cloggypop]

Arsed. I've not really watched that many games in it since we've stopped qualifying.

I am sort of hoping we will be in it in 2015

 

[Fallon]

*Glances up from LOF to wonder what all the fuss is about*

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I've got BT Sport. Suck it.

 

[Spionkop69]

Arsed. I've not really watched that many games in it since we've stopped qualifying.

Hmmm. Given that we look like we've got a very good chance of qualifying for next season, I'd say that's a reasonably short sighted view.

Of course you could have the last laugh on that at the end of the season and we'd both be fucked off!

 

[Hansern]

The new BT deal for the CL means English teams who qualify will receive £37.5m. In 2012 Chelsea received £50m for winning it. (Independent)

 

[MC Golgotha]

Wonder what it means in terms of BT's ambitions for the next round of Premier League rights. If they piss a billion away on midweek football, you figure they've got plans to poach more than 38 league games next time. The auction went to a second round this time as BT's first bid was bigger than Sky's, but Sky were given the opportunity to respond.

10% off Sky shares since the announcement.

 

[6TimesaRed]

1 billion squid wiped of the value of the murdoch empire overnight. .

For far too long sky have had it their own way... At last somebody with balls is taking them on..

About time...

 

[Athens]

I see BT are going to offer some matches free to air for people who don't have the sports package.

I wonder will they offer matches that people actually want to see or will it be something like Olympiakos V Anderlecht?

 

[SummerOnions]

I see BT are going to offer some matches free to air for people who don't have the sports package.

I wonder will they offer matches that people actually want to see or will it be something like Olympiakos V Anderlecht?

they'll probably start showing half a good game. Cut off when someone is about to score and ask you to fill in your credit card details

 

[Athens]

they'll probably start showing half a good game. Cut off when someone is about to score and ask you to fill in your credit card details

To see the goal, press 1, to change camera angle, press 2, to hear commentary in your language of choice, press 3....

 

[Tal]

To listen to a customer service representative read out from a screen, utterly fcuking stupid solutions to a problem you don't have in barely understandable English, press 9 and wait ages while we charge you for this call...

 

[Judge Jules]

The new BT Chief Exec who made the deal is a Red BTW.