Viaplay buy Premier Sports

[Rugbyleaguesupporter]

https://www.viaplaygroup.com/news/news-releases/viaplay-group-acquires-premier-sports-and-accelerates-entry-uk-2037710

 

In essence, subject to approval in Sep, everything will be similar but Viaplay will take over. 

Major differences: 

- pricing will change 

- there may be entertainment alongside sport 

[gingerjon]

That's interesting.

Viaplay have been buying up a lot of niche rights but lacked an obvious platform.

[Toby Chopra]

Seems to be the classic emerging broadcaster move: using sports as a bridgehead for putting the rest of your offering in front of more eyeballs. 

That strategy has often been accompanied by overpaying for sports rights, but for Sky, BT etc that period is generally over now. 

Viaplay seem to be operating at much lower size and scope, but would be interesting to see if they'd be interested in some SL rights, perhaps at a little premium, if that pulled in another 100,000 subs to up-sell to. 

I think at the place in the TV sports market that we sit, there's still a little bit of competition going on with all the streamers fighting for share. 

[Bacardi Dave]

4 hours ago, Rugbyleaguesupporter said:

https://www.viaplaygroup.com/news/news-releases/viaplay-group-acquires-premier-sports-and-accelerates-entry-uk-2037710

 

In essence, subject to approval in Sep, everything will be similar but Viaplay will take over. 

Major differences: 

- pricing will change 

- there may be entertainment alongside sport 

I thought Sport WAS emtertainment?

Although some supporters of certain teams may disagree.

[Damien]

2 hours ago, Toby Chopra said:

Seems to be the classic emerging broadcaster move: using sports as a bridgehead for putting the rest of your offering in front of more eyeballs. 

That strategy has often been accompanied by overpaying for sports rights, but for Sky, BT etc that period is generally over now. 

Viaplay seem to be operating at much lower size and scope, but would be interesting to see if they'd be interested in some SL rights, perhaps at a little premium, if that pulled in another 100,000 subs to up-sell to. 

I think at the place in the TV sports market that we sit, there's still a little bit of competition going on with all the streamers fighting for share. 

I think it would be pretty disastrous for the sport for SL to move to such a niche channel. It didn't work well at all for the Pro14 in RU. RL struggles enough as it is to get media coverage and new fans.

Edited July 23, 2022 by Damien

[Keith989]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

I think it would be pretty disastrous for the sport for SL to move to such a niche channel. It didn't work well at all for the Pro14 in RU. RL struggles enough as it is to get media coverage and new fans.

How didn't it work well for the pro14? They gave a much bigger deal than what the league was realistically worth and allowed for games to be aired on free to air tv, thus allowing every single game to be televised. 

[Toby Chopra]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

I think it would be pretty disastrous for the sport for SL to move to such a niche channel. It didn't work well at all for the Pro14 in RU. RL struggles enough as it is to get media coverage and new fans.

Wholesale, I agree. But say if there was 10 games a year on C4 (including the GF, which union have just agreed with ITV) plus CC and internationals on BBC, a streamer might work for the rest, if the money wqs worth it. 

I don't think our Sky slots really spread the word much these days - it just caters for the established audience and no more. 

If i remember rightly, aren't IMG already looking at a streaming service of their own? 

[Damien]

28 minutes ago, Keith989 said:

How didn't it work well for the pro14? They gave a much bigger deal than what the league was realistically worth and allowed for games to be aired on free to air tv, thus allowing every single game to be televised. 

Yes they sold out for more money, no one goes to Premier Sports otherwise. That's obvious.

They didn't allow FTA coverage at the start of the deal. That was added later when everyone realised what a disaster the loss of coverage. Media coverage of the competition fell off a cliff as did TV viewing figures which are woeful. Championship RL often rates as well or better.

[Damien]

11 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:

Wholesale, I agree. But say if there was 10 games a year on C4 (including the GF, which union have just agreed with ITV) plus CC and internationals on BBC, a streamer might work for the rest, if the money wqs worth it. 

I don't think our Sky slots really spread the word much these days - it just caters for the established audience and no more. 

If i remember rightly, aren't IMG already looking at a streaming service of their own? 

Yes I could see something like that being okay but it would take way more than 10 games a week. That's pretty much what is happening now with C4 but whilst a huge improvement it is just not often or consistent enough. I can't see Sky ever agreeing to something like weekly FTA games or a Premier Sports type channel being able to pay enough yet make that work for them.

I still think Sky caters for most sports fans and will do for as long as they hold Premier League TV rights. When/if that changes then its a different landscape entirely. 

Edited July 23, 2022 by Damien

[RigbyLuger]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

Yes they sold out for more money, no one goes to Premier Sports otherwise. That's obvious.

They didn't allow FTA coverage at the start of the deal. That was added later when everyone realised what a disaster the loss of coverage. Media coverage of the competition fell off a cliff as did TV viewing figures which are woeful. Championship RL often rates as well or better.

Does anyone know how the Championship games have been doing recently? 

[Rugbyleaguesupporter]

@Toby Chopra

100k at £100 a year is £10m. 

£8.4m after VAT 

Cost of production will be at least £3m (probably higher) 

So £5m max from viaplay versus £25m from Sky