looks like changes at sky sports.

[Cherry and White]

sky sports set to make changes to its sport channels.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/golf/article-4377230/Sky-s-golf-coverage-driving-rugby-rough.html

 

 

https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/2212486/mail-sky-to-revamp-sky-sports-channels-packages#latest

[Toby Chopra]

I hope this shows that people are starting to rebel against paying ever rising subscriptions driven by spiraling football rights.

If league, cricket, darts and NFL were bundled up in a single package, as one of the links suggests, it'd be absolutely perfect for me!

[Moc]

Yep id be happy to only pay for the "Varity" package if it includes League, Union, NFL

Fed up paying massive amounts for football I dont watch

[bromleybulldog]

This sounds like the ideal solution- a channel that excludes football, F1 and golf would be much better and cheaper. All they have to do is exclude darts as well and it would be perfect.

[Dave T]

Happily offload Cricket, Golf and F1.

If I could get the football and RL for less than now that'd be great - I suspect it wont be the case!

[Damien]

If Rugby League was put on such a channel it would be great if it meant paying less for Rugby League and not subsiding Football. However in a round about way it may be bad for Rugby League in that a lot of Football fans seemingly like to watch Rugby League as a secondary sport but would never pay extra to do so if it was on a different channel and would mean less exposure for the game.

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

If Rugby League was put on such a channel it would be great if it meant paying less for Rugby League and not subsiding Football. However in a round about way it may be bad for Rugby League in that a lot of Football fans seemingly like to watch Rugby League as a secondary sport but would never pay extra to do so if it was on a different channel and would mean less exposure for the game.

I think that there is also a risk of the sports on those channels getting true market values. ie. if the Variety channel which includes RL, RU, Darts etc got really low figures and advertising, then could Sky just focus solely on these sports that they now clearly consider tier 1?

[gingerjon]

Interesting that the Mail has picked up that there's a bit of sidelining there for rugby union.  Leaving aside our gripes regarding that game I do think broadcasters overpay for that sport relative to the viewing figures it achieves.

I've said with regards to BT I'd be more than happy to drop their main sports coverage and just keep their American sports.  For Sky if I had to lose their big guns and just keep a variety pack channel I'd be well happy.

[Mattrhino]

Hope they do RL and NFL in one package. I pay way over the odds to subsudise soccer which other than the odd Leeds game I never watch.

[Bearman]

That's sky in trouble then.

How crazy is it to marginalise the billion+ avid ru fans that watch every game?

[Futtocks]

I haven't looked at the listings recently, but isn't Sky Sports 5 pretty much a dedicated Golf channel anyway?

The Mail story was a little obsessive about RU over the other minority sports. Much as expected with that paper, I suppose. After all, if RU (or RL) had a dedicated channel with a 24/7 schedule, a lot of that would either be mostly delayed coverage and repeats, or the clubs would have to kick off at all sorts of times. 

Golf, like Cricket, can fill up a big chunk of a day with a single match.

[Blind side johnny]

Surely the idea of subscription channels will become old hat very quickly. A properly selective PPV is the way forward for such broadcasters.

[SteveT]

3 hours ago, Damien said:

If Rugby League was put on such a channel it would be great if it meant paying less for Rugby League and not subsiding Football. However in a round about way it may be bad for Rugby League in that a lot of Football fans seemingly like to watch Rugby League as a secondary sport but would never pay extra to do so if it was on a different channel and would mean less exposure for the game.

Would it be a case of paying extra or if you buy a premium package it would include the variety one too?

[Futtocks]

Would it mean less money for RL, come the next contract renewal?

[Moc]

41 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

Surely the idea of subscription channels will become old hat very quickly. A properly selective PPV is the way forward for such broadcasters.

Most major sports league offer their own subscription service now (NRL, NFL, WWE even)

If/When Premier League decide to stream its own games Sky/BT Sports will die off

[yipyee]

4 hours ago, Damien said:

If Rugby League was put on such a channel it would be great if it meant paying less for Rugby League and not subsiding Football. However in a round about way it may be bad for Rugby League in that a lot of Football fans seemingly like to watch Rugby League as a secondary sport but would never pay extra to do so if it was on a different channel and would mean less exposure for the game.

If you are payingfor the expensive channels you can usually tag other channels on for a couple of quid...if darts is linked with RL then that would prob swing it for a lot of soccer fans...

[Griff9of13]

If this were to come about it may tempt me back; I packed in my Sky Sport subscription last year when the last big subscription increase was announced. I never watch soccer, so can't see the point in paying so much not to watch it.

[nadera78]

26 minutes ago, Griff9of13 said:

If this were to come about it may tempt me back; I packed in my Sky Sport subscription last year when the last big subscription increase was announced. I never watch soccer, so can't see the point in paying so much not to watch it.

It depends how they structure it for me. I gave Sky the elbow because it was a ridiculous price to pay just to watch 2 RL games p/w and the odd A.N.Other sports match that I could sneak in if the Mrs was asleep after work. I watch the NHL online. RL being available on a general sports channel would mean I could get that and not the rest of the rubbish.

I wonder how successful a RL/RU/NFL channel would be? RL would get the best ratings of that lot, so would presumably get the prime scheduling slots, and Sky would quite possibly have to increase the number of fixtures shown. Promoted as the physical sports channel, and the seasons sort of work. They'd probably have to go after the NRL rights too. You could maybe throw in boxing and MMA as well, given the target demographics.

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, nadera78 said:

It depends how they structure it for me. I gave Sky the elbow because it was a ridiculous price to pay just to watch 2 RL games p/w and the odd A.N.Other sports match that I could sneak in if the Mrs was asleep after work. I watch the NHL online. RL being available on a general sports channel would mean I could get that and not the rest of the rubbish.

I wonder how successful a RL/RU/NFL channel would be? RL would get the best ratings of that lot, so would presumably get the prime scheduling slots, and Sky would quite possibly have to increase the number of fixtures shown. Promoted as the physical sports channel, and the seasons sort of work. They'd probably have to go after the NRL rights too. You could maybe throw in boxing and MMA as well, given the target demographics.

Hmm... why do I think that such straightforward and obvious logic wouldn't be applied, when the other code is involved...? 

[Oxford]

I've only ever had Sky for RL so what they do with other sports is pretty irrelevant, what they decide for RL is wrapped up with their loss or not of a subscriber.

From what I gathered from the Mail article it's hard to know what RL's outcome will be as it primarily was about union and discussed by union.

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, Oxford said:

I've only ever had Sky for RL so what they do with other sports is pretty irrelevant, what they decide for RL is wrapped up with their loss or not of a subscriber.

From what I gathered from the Mail article it's hard to know what RL's outcome will be as it primarily was about union and discussed by union.

What they do with other sports impacts how much you pay per month, how much RL gets from them, and also when their RL coverage is scheduled, so it does impact a fair bit.

[Oxford]

9 hours ago, Futtocks said:

What they do with other sports impacts how much you pay per month, how much RL gets from them, and also when their RL coverage is scheduled, so it does impact a fair bit.

I can't imagine that Sky aren't fully aware of exactly what the relationship between viewing figures, advertising income and subscription levels related to particular sports and what they need to offer to keep sports with halfway decent figures.

That will be reflected in the price of the variety pack and the sum they'll make people pay for their sole sports efforts. In truth we'll all pay for it no matter what the changes mean and the mail article like more or less the rest of that paper was useless.

The yawn scaremongering was very reminiscent of a few posters on here though.

[BenGilesRL]

23 hours ago, Damien said:

If Rugby League was put on such a channel it would be great if it meant paying less for Rugby League and not subsiding Football. However in a round about way it may be bad for Rugby League in that a lot of Football fans seemingly like to watch Rugby League as a secondary sport but would never pay extra to do so if it was on a different channel and would mean less exposure for the game.

I would have thought that with football being one of their premium packages they would throw in the smaller package with it - but might be wrong.

Normally its the smaller package where you 'miss out' on certain things, and the bigger packages where you get the smaller ones too.

[Futtocks]

8 minutes ago, BenGilesRL said:

I would have thought that with football being one of their premium packages they would throw in the smaller package with it - but might be wrong.

Normally its the smaller package where you 'miss out' on certain things, and the bigger packages where you get the smaller ones too.

That would be the better option. I hope they are considering it. If you're shelling out the biggest monthly fee, you should get the lot anyway.

[Tommygilf]

This looks like sky are following Fox Sports Australia. They already have channels for AFL and Rugby League. 

In a way we've had this before with Sky Sports Ashes/Masters for example. Though I'm not sure how institutionalising this system would work, for example Sky often have La Liga football games on at the same time as Premier League games. Even Championship and Scottish premier league clash. 

Sadly for RL we appear to be forgetting that though our 2 SL games a week are strong for viewing figures, Sky have Pro12, Super Rugby, Top 14 and internationals for content to fill a "Hard hitting sport" channel. 

Sky look like they may have pulled a blinder.