Cant believe sky lost out there. Blow to them. Doubt bt will continue to be free if you hqve broadband with them like now
That'll be the dilemma if they do go into admin, take a 25 point penalty as the same club or take 10 points as a new club.
Are they far ahead at the top of their division? If so, they'd nearly take the big hit and hope that whatever players remain after the big earners are shed can crawl over the line.... Either that, or try and sign Daniel Cousin like Rangers did.
BT Sport splashed out £900million to screen Champions League matches yesterday – raising fears that fans will miss out. Former First Minister Henry McLeish, who wrote a report on Scottish football, said he was concerned that ordinary supporters would suffer because the three-year deal takes the tournament off terrestrial TV. Sky and ITV have shared the rights to screen all 350 Champions League and Europa League matches, paying £260million and £160million respectively.But BT offered a massive £897million, more than double the current figure, to take over as sole broadcaster. Bosses yesterday pledged to show some matches – including the finals – free and promised each British team would be screened at least once without charge. They also said they planned to make their package for customers cheaper than Sky’s. But McLeish said he believed BT were using the Champions League to help boost their number of broadband customers. (You think Einstein?) He said: “ITV have stuck by football through thick and thin ( Just utter bollocks) and to exclude terrestial television means real, good supporters won’t be able to watch these games. (I've seen one CEltic CL game on ITV this season) “Over the past decade, there has been a continual move away from terrestrial television towards Sky and cable and in many respects this has been to the disadvantage of fans. “This is a step too far in football investment and, quite frankly, BT are dangerously close to using football for their own commercial ends. (Like SKY have been doing for 20 years?) “Football fans will see fewer and fewer matches and will be left wondering what the long-term plan is.” BT have already spent £738million over three years for the rights to show 38 live English Premier League matches and 30 Scottish Premiership games for this season. The deal also includes ten Rangers games in Scottish League One. Last week, BT claimed more than two million people had subscribed to their television sports channels since the launch in August and they reported six-month pre-tax profits of £948million. BT’s consumer division boss John Petter promised fans they would offer a cheaper package than what is available through Sky, although no price was revealed. He said: “Today, to get the whole competition, you typically have to pay Sky £40 or so a month. The pricing is not being announced today but I can say that this will be far more affordable than currently.” A statement from Sky said: “We bid with a clear view of what the rights are worth to us. It seems BT chose to pay far in excess of our valuation.” The deal was welcomed by Paul Waterson, of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, who said: “We’re pleased that there now appears to be competition to Sky because their relationship with pub owners was non-existent. “BT say they plan to make football more accessible and affordable so it’ll be interesting to see how they do that. “It costs licensed premises between £10,000 and £12,000 per season to show matches on Sky and fewer pubs have it now than before. “Sky have always over-estimated how much money a big game generates in pubs and the days of just sticking a television in the corner are gone. “Publicans now have to make an event of the match to bring in punters. “Obviously, with more matches being taken away from terrestrial television fans will want to find a place to watch it.”
'Cos only plastic fans have Sky or BT. All the real, working class fans still have 5 channels and look forward to the soft core porn on channel 5 every Friday
I thought they turned off analogue and every **** has at least Freeview these days - doesn't that mean that since BT Sport is broadcast on Freeview that when they do show certain games for free that exactly the same amount of people will have access to it as they do now on ITV?
Yes, that is exactly what it means. They also don't get their equipment from Poundland so it won't feel like watching a bad stream on your laptop.
