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SKY Sports to end broadcast partnership with


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The GAA


Might be nothing, but reading that story it seems that Sky probably wanted too much in return for too little Money and the GAA have decided to explore other avenues. The current SKY deal is due for negotiation/renewal at the end of 2023 and given it is said that we got less per year than before last time, have we got the game to "explore other avenues"? 
Channel 4 would be fantastic, but would they be able to match SKY? BT sport anyone?

IMG have to hit the ground running and first up MUST be the job of securing a new BETTER broadcast deal. Anew broadcast partner might be just the "freshen-up" the game needs.

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How much would it impact Sky if they dropped RL altogether?

How many subscribers are stand alone RL fans and only subscribe for the RL coverage, obviously they would lose some advertising revenue for the adverts shown during the programme.

These days they have much more Cricket to broadcast than in previous years and it has it's own dedicated channel, along with F1 and Golf all primarily summer sports and the football off-season seems to be getting shorter and shorter each year.

Sky is now a subsidiary of the American company Comcast, do they see RL as regional sport that is not transferable with a global appeal to screen in many other countries?

I don't know the answers to the questions I pose, willing to be advised by those with a better knowledge of the subject than I have.

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2 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

BT might take it but again they are pulling back on sport spend. 

BT and Eurosport have merged with rebranding of both due soon. That will make them, probably, a more attractive offer for the casual sports fan than Sky but Sky still have the Premier League major rights.

https://newsroom.bt.com/warner-bros-discovery-and-bt-group-close-transaction-to-form-sports-joint-venture/

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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3 hours ago, gingerjon said:

BT and Eurosport have merged with rebranding of both due soon. That will make them, probably, a more attractive offer for the casual sports fan than Sky but Sky still have the Premier League major rights.

https://newsroom.bt.com/warner-bros-discovery-and-bt-group-close-transaction-to-form-sports-joint-venture/

As a sports fan who will watch pretty much everything, I still think Sky hold the premium offering (not just football) in terms of portfolio, but BT/Eurosport offer some niche aspects that almost makes it essential to hold both if you are a fan of big Premier League club for example and want to follow your club’s exploits in every competition.

I think RL in our country has to strike a fine balance between FTA coverage and paywall funding.

Also being on the Sky platform allows for a level of cross promotion compared to if we tried to shove our best content on OurLeague as some have called for.

 

 

Edited by Gerrumonside ref
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2 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

As a sports fan who will watch pretty much everything, I still think Sky hold the premium offering (not just football) in terms of portfolio, but BT/Eurosport offer some niche aspects that almost makes it essential to hold both if you are a fan of big Premier League club for example and want to follow your club’s exploits in every competition.

I think RL in our country has to strike a fine balance between FTA coverage and paywall funding.

Also being on the Sky platform allows for a level of cross promotion compared to if we tried to shove our best content on OurLeague as some have called for.

 

 

Sky's offer keeps dwindling. I'm at the point where if Super League goes then I will probably unsubscribe.

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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6 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Sky Sports is going to become a massive misnomer at this rate.

It's one thing keep force feeding American sports down our throats to fill channels because it's cheap and plentiful content but another thing entirely to think that people will keep paying for Sky if home grown sports are neglected and Sky just becomes Football plus loads of American sports to fill the schedules.

Edited by Damien
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2 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

How much would it impact Sky if they dropped RL altogether?

How many subscribers are stand alone RL fans and only subscribe for the RL coverage, obviously they would lose some advertising revenue for the adverts shown during the programme.

These days they have much more Cricket to broadcast than in previous years and it has it's own dedicated channel, along with F1 and Golf all primarily summer sports and the football off-season seems to be getting shorter and shorter each year.

Sky is now a subsidiary of the American company Comcast, do they see RL as regional sport that is not transferable with a global appeal to screen in many other countries?

I don't know the answers to the questions I pose, willing to be advised by those with a better knowledge of the subject than I have.

It’s a grim picture you paint there, Harry.

Let’s hope Sky see the fruition of the IMG approach and the potential post successful World Cup boom as reasons to keep the relationship going.

What’s your view?

 

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7 minutes ago, Damien said:

It's one thing keep force feeding American sports down our throats to fill channels because it's cheap and plentiful content but another thing entirely to think that people will keep paying for Sky if home grown sports are neglected and Sky just becomes Football plus loads of American sports to fill the schedules.

Especially when the one they don’t have (MLB) is the only one useful as evening filler in the UK.

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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3 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

How much would it impact Sky if they dropped RL altogether?

How many subscribers are stand alone RL fans and only subscribe for the RL coverage, obviously they would lose some advertising revenue for the adverts shown during the programme.

These days they have much more Cricket to broadcast than in previous years and it has it's own dedicated channel, along with F1 and Golf all primarily summer sports and the football off-season seems to be getting shorter and shorter each year.

Sky is now a subsidiary of the American company Comcast, do they see RL as regional sport that is not transferable with a global appeal to screen in many other countries?

I don't know the answers to the questions I pose, willing to be advised by those with a better knowledge of the subject than I have.

Does the current reduced deal end this season? Looking at Comcast's strategy, it wouldn't surprise me if they dropped RL completely. I think this is a key reason for bringing in IMG now and suspect that they are looking at other options including streaming services.

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1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

Sky's offer keeps dwindling. I'm at the point where if Super League goes then I will probably unsubscribe.

Even though I would class myself as a cricket fan I too would probably drop Sky if the RL went.
There were numerous days during the last cricket season when T20 matches were being played but Sky showed some old match so don’t fall for the dedicated channel argument 

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2 minutes ago, LeeF said:

Even though I would class myself as a cricket fan I too would probably drop Sky if the RL went.
There were numerous days during the last cricket season when T20 matches were being played but Sky showed some old match so don’t fall for the dedicated channel argument 

That's it. I do watch the cricket on Sky and it would be the thing, besides RL, to keep me there, but I did watch an awful lot of county and regional cricket on YouTube as well.

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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All of this is guesswork for us without the data, and we will always interpret Sky's actions with some bias to match our viewpoint. 

I must admit, I genuinely don't know where we sit with Sky. 

I think it is easy to make a compelling case that we add value, particularly during summer mo ths when their content can be really light, and we can point to the fact that we return some of their highest figures across their arena and action channels for large periods of the year. We look like we provide them some value. 

On the flipside, if there is no competition, they can easily offer £20m per year next time and they know we'd have to take it in reality. One of the problems is it is difficult to see real significant growth in viewing figs/subscribers for RL on Sky, irrespective of the standard, our figures have remained stubbornly consistent over the years. Which is a strength, but provides a challenge that we never become a 300k per game sport over the 150k to 200k.

We have seen other sports grow figures through offering something different, new comps, new locations, new formats - and whilst part of me would want to resist some of this for RL, I think it is needed, but I can't see where it is coming from. 

But we should always be wary of being too comfortable on Sky. UK RU was on for a long time and left, and WWE wrestling was one of Sky's earliest big 'things' and no longer fits in there. 

Edited by Dave T
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5 minutes ago, Dave T said:

All of this is guesswork for us without the data, and we will always interpret Sky's actions with some bias to match our viewpoint. 

I must admit, I genuinely don't know where we sit with Sky. 

I think it is easy to make a compelling case that we add value, particularly during summer mo ths when their content can be really light, and we can point to the fact that we return some of their highest figures across their arena and action channels for large periods of the year. We look like we provide them some value. 

On the flipside, if there is no competition, they can easily offer £20m per year next time and they know we'd have to take it in reality. One of the problems is it is difficult to see real significant growth in viewing figs/subscribers for RL on Sky, irrespective of the standard, our figures have remained stubbornly consistent over the years. Which is a strength, but provides a challenge that we never become a 300k per game sport over the 150k to 200k.

We have seen other sports grow figures through offering something different, new comps, new locations, new formats - and whilst part of me would want to resist some of this for RL, I think it is needed, but I can't see where it is coming from. 

But we should always be wary of being too comfortable on Sky. UK RU was on for a long time and left, and WWE wrestling was one of Sky's earliest big 'things' and no longer fits in there. 

I'm pretty sure the RFL know what's coming. Sky is losing subscribers at a rate of knots - it's had it's day but is fast becoming an outdated broadcasting model. Alternatives have to be found and quick. 

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5 minutes ago, corkonian77 said:

BBC and RTE are getting  the TV Rights. 

BBC to show Hurling  and Gaelic  Football  all Ireland semi finals  and final pan UK. 

The gaa is amateur  so they could  afford  to walk  away from Sky. 

They've always had TV rights, that's no change. Sky was always an extra to that.

Showing games on Sky was always unpopular with quite a lot of GAA people who think they have a divine right to watch GAA for free. This view also ignores the fact there is only so much GAA the likes of RTE, TG4 and the BBC can show. I can see the GAA streaming more games on GAAGO especially so they can still hit the Irish ex-pat market.

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8 minutes ago, Damien said:

They've always had TV rights, that's no change. Sky was always an extra to that.

Showing games on Sky was always unpopular with quite a lot of GAA people who think they have a divine right to watch GAA for free. This view also ignores the fact there is only so much GAA the likes of RTE, TG4 and the BBC can show. I can see the GAA streaming more games on GAAGO especially so they can still hit the Irish ex-pat market.

All correct 

 

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25 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I genuinely don't know where we sit with Sky. 

Also, it's worth saying (and I say it a fair bit TBH), is just how different to the rest of the world the dominance of Sky makes the UK market.

Unlike the rest of the world, in the UK, streaming is still some quirky outlier - and will be for as long as the main Premier League package is held by a company that, even with minor moves around the edges, is absolutely a receive and satellite dish company.

At some point, Sky's model will have to change because there won't the tech to keep it going but their streaming options are absolutely awful, and/or the market will be completely changed by a provider with a streaming focus getting those Premier League rights.

The best RL can do is put itself in the strongest position to be a property that people will want to have.

Which is entirely what IMG are about.

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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3 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Also, it's worth saying (and I say it a fair bit TBH), is just how different to the rest of the world the dominance of Sky makes the UK market.

Unlike the rest of the world, in the UK, streaming is still some quirky outlier - and will be for as long as the main Premier League package is held by a company that, even with minor moves around the edges, is absolutely a receive and satellite dish company.

At some point, Sky's model will have to change because there won't the tech to keep it going but their streaming options are absolutely awful, and/or the market will be completely changed by a provider with a streaming focus getting those Premier League rights.

The best RL can do is put itself in the strongest position to be a property that people will want to have.

Which is entirely what IMG are about.

Spot on with your final point, I did mean to finish with something similar. 

Do the right things, be the best you can, and it will deliver the best outcomes. 

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20 hours ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

It’s a grim picture you paint there, Harry.

Let’s hope Sky see the fruition of the IMG approach and the potential post successful World Cup boom as reasons to keep the relationship going.

What’s your view?

 

I don't know Ref, I have had Sky and even before in all it's formats since the 80's and I have seen a reduction in the amount of air time they have given to RL - albeit they did come up with a record contract but that was eroded at the last deal, I just have a feeling that going forward it my not be as big a part of the portfolio of sports they offer as we would hope it to be, I posed some questions which I I don't know the answers to that is why I asked them to see if anyone has a greater knowledge, anyway it won't be long before we find out what their intention is.

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19 hours ago, Roughyed Rats said:

Does the current reduced deal end this season? Looking at Comcast's strategy, it wouldn't surprise me if they dropped RL completely. I think this is a key reason for bringing in IMG now and suspect that they are looking at other options including streaming services.

If you are right Roughyed and Comcast/Sky drop RL the IMG grading system will be severely affected if the funding is no more, every club is reliant on the funding and some much much more than others.

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21 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Sky's offer keeps dwindling. I'm at the point where if Super League goes then I will probably unsubscribe.

That is the first question I posed Ginger, would it affect Comcast/Sky if they dropped RL altogether, in other words are there enough subscribers who's only/main reason for being a customer is to watch RL, I am sure they have done some background work which will give them an indication of the numbers, what do you think?

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