This golf tournament will now be shown live on Sky as they have outbid the BBC...In my opinion this is a disaster for the sport in general which will have long lasting repercussions. Since Sky took over the cricket participation at junior level has dropped off dramatically and I suspect the same will happen with golf in our country..
They put money into sport of that there is no doubt, but the fact that only a small minority of the population have Sky Sports means that less people see it..
Shocking, but Sky do cover sport very well, they have the Ryder Cup and do a great job. Its such a shame that the BBC has simply given up on bidding for the big sporting events in the UK.
There are some sporting events that should be retained on terrestrial tv as a matter of principle. The Open is one of these (along with Wimbledon, the FA Cup Final, World Cups, Grand National etc) We are getting less and less for our tv licenses as time goes by. More and more reality tv b0ll0x fills the airwaves
The quality in the delivery is world's apart. Sky's football team on a match day is quality, Jamie Redknapp aside. Their F1 coverage also wipes the floor with anything BBC or ITV have done in the past. The fact is, BBC are a ****ing bunch of ***** protecting ****wits, so the sooner they are swallowed up by Sky the better.
The BBC's biggest issue is their money and the way they make it - i.e. Licence payers.. Every adult household has to pay a licence fee of £12-13 per month (approx 25m housholds = income of £303m annually for licence payers Sky have approximately 10.4m subscribers (nearly 50% of the market which isn;t a small percentage mind) probably averaging over £50 per month = INcome from people of £520m + the income of their advertisers of £xbn per year. This is why the BBC and it's antiquated methods are a problem and the reason that the BBC is not making enough - it's main source of income is the people and sky's isn't. IKf the BBC decided to show 4 or 5 adverts between each show (without breaks during programmes) then what difference would it make and how much income would it create for them? THEN they could happily afford to compete with Sky TV. Until they do this then they will never compete. It's not Sky's faulty - it's the BBC's for being stuck in their ways and completely unadaptable.
Sky's golf coverage is fantastic and tbh I won't be renewing my sky sports until just before the Masters. Can live without their football but not the golf! Agree this is a shame for BBC but I am heavily involved with junior golf and I'm not sure the BBC coverage of the open was particularly beneficial in bringing young people to the game anyway
