It’s been a while since this thread has been posted in, so time for some updates.
Firstly, Eurosport launched an Ultra High Definition linear channel for the French Open tennis tournament:
http://media.eurosport.com/pressR/n...sionid=761166FB75697925D616241F6CAF24DE.prem2
Like with the 3 extra linear channels that were launched for the Pyeongchang Olympics, this was only a temporary channel. It closed down last week once the tournament was over.
But, can you imagine now amazing figure skating would look in Ultra High Definition?! :shocked:
Speaking of the extra linear channels for the Olympics, you remember how we couldn’t understand why they were only available on BT TV and on platforms owned by Liberty Media. And how, at the time, we were putting it down to Discovery's feud with Sky. Well, although that is undoubtedly part of it, I recently discovered something that is probably the main reason:
LIBERTY IS DISCOVERY’S BIGGEST SHAREHOLDER
That explains EVERYTHING!!!
Although, this situation is unlikely to happen again, because a few weeks ago Liberty sold all their mainland European cable TV businesses to mobile phone operator Vodafone:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44050682
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...lobal-virgin-media-cable-and-broadband-assets
Liberty have only kept hold of Virgin Media, the cable TV provider for the British Isles. And I still reckon that is because Liberty have their eyes on buying ITV (which they currently have a 9.9% stake in), but are waiting until they can buy the entire network (Scottish TV is the only Channel 3 franchise holder that is still a separate company). After all, Virgin have already bought the channel that is effectively the Irish equivalent of ITV and whose schedule is heavily reliant on ITV programmes: TV3.
Onto some content news, and Discovery has signed a 12-year alliance with the PGA, starting from 2019:
http://media.eurosport.com/pressR/n...sionid=EED99AD5B2940915BCE371054EEC5337.prem1
It’s the same idea as what they have done with the IOC. And, like with the Olympics coverage, it will come into force in stages over the next 6 years as contracts with existing broadcasters expire.
In the British Isles, Sky has the golf rights up to 2022. So, it won’t be switching to Eurosport until after that.
I am getting worried. Discovery is getting more and more sports rights, but seems to have no intention of launching any more linear Eurosport channels apart from temporary ones for specific events. And I can see more of Eurosport’s traditional sports getting squeezed out.
I suppose we can trace the start of this transition back to 2009 when Eurosport lost the pan-European rights to MotoGP, after they had shown it for the guts of 20 years. OK, so it has returned to Eurosport in some countries since then, but it is no longer one of the jewels in the crown that it once was. And the fact that they didn’t try too hard to get the rights back in the British Isles from the 2019 season onwards when most of the bike fans here wanted them to shows that MotoGP is no longer a priority.
Cycling and tennis have always been top of the pecking order on Eurosport. But, even though tennis is one of their main sports, Eurosport don’t have the rights to everything. In the British Isles, BT Sport have most of the WTA tournaments; while Amazon have the US Open, ATP World Tour, Next Gen ATP Finals, and the Men’s matches at Queen’s and Eastbourne.
We have known for a while that Sky was losing interest in tennis. Hey, the fact that tennis didn’t get a dedicated channel when Sky Sports was overhauled last year says it all. But I am sure I am not the only person that expected Eurosport to take over Sky’s rights when the contracts ran out. But instead, new entrant Amazon came in and won them. Does the fact that Eurosport didn’t make sure they got them mean that tennis is not as big a deal for them as it once was?
For many years, Eurosport was the only place that showed Women’s football. They would show the World Cups and European Championships (at all age groups for both); and Champions League matches featuring selected teams (Wolfsburg, Turbine Potsdam, Olympique Lyonnais, anf Paris St. Germain). But, I can’t remember the last time they showed any Women’s football, it was so long ago.
Ever since the England team won the Bronze Medal in the 2015 World Cup, the BBC have got seriously interested in Women’s football. Since they don’t have much in the way of rights to Men’s football any more, they have been building up their rights to Women’s football. It used to be that they only had a 30 minute weekly magazine show, which mainly discussed the Women’s Super League. Now, they also show LIVE coverage of WSL matches; the Semis and Final of the FA Cup; and England and Scotland international matches.
But, as you can see, none of this was what was shown on Eurosport. So, I don’t know what has happened. Have the things I mentioned just been squeezed out of the schedules due to there not being enough space on the linear channels for everything?
I fear that getting completely squeezed out of the schedules on the linear channels is what is going to happen to figure skating. It is already happening with other winter sports which are not quite as popular as the likes of Alpine Skiing.
Take Women’s Ski Jumping. When the Women’s World Cup was first launched, Eurosport showed all the competitions on their linear channels in their entirety. And it was great! But after a couple of years, the women’s competitions got relegated to the Player. And last season, they weren’t even shown on the Player. And you would have thought that in an Olympic season they would have shown the regular season. But, no, all we saw last season was the single competition in Pyeongchang.
I know what happened to Women’s Ski Jumping is the doomsday scenario. But, it just shows that getting pushed onto the Player can be the start of a slippery slope.
Eurosport needs a whole pile of additional linear channels. Not just temporary ones for when there are big events on. Permanent ones.
But the outlook is not good. Ever since they launched on Sky Digital back in August 1999, Eurosport had a block of 3 Sky EPG slots (most recently numbered 410–412). But, when there was a major reshuffle of channels at the start of May, Discovery sold the third Eurosport slot (412) to the Irish phone company Eir, which put their Premier Sports channel on it. This move has baffled everybody, as it makes no logical sense at all. If Discovery was determined to sell, it would have made more sense to sell to one of Eurosport’s neighbours.
Sky has 10 sports channels, but only has a block of 9 EPG slots (401–409). BT Sport has 4 channels, but currently has their first 2 channels together (413 and 414), and their other 2 channels are sitting individually (417 and 423).
In an ideal world, Discovery would have sold 410 to Sky. Then the following would have been possible:
- Sky could have put all their sports channels together (the horse racing channel currently called “At The Races” but soon to be rebranded as “Sky Sports Racing” could have moved from 415 to 410).
- Eurosport could have had their 2 channels on 411 and 412.
- BT Sport could buy slot 415 (and the reserved 416) from At The Races, and put all 4 of their existing channels together on 413–416, and kept 417 reserved for a future 5[SUP]th[/SUP] channel.
- Eir could have bought 423 (and the reserved 424) from BT Sport, and put all 4 of their channels together on 421–424.
Unfortunately, Discovery’s current feud with Sky ruled out this scenario. But, there would have been an alternative option which would have made things at least a bit tidier – selling 412 to BT. Then this would have been possible:
- Eurosport could have kept their 2 channels on 410 and 411.
- BT Sport could buy slot 415 (and the reserved 416) from At The Races, and put all 4 of their existing channels together on 412–415, and kept 416 reserved for a future 5[SUP]th[/SUP] channel.
- At The Races could have bought 417 from BT Sport, and moved there.
- Eir could have bought 423 (and the reserved 424) from BT Sport, and put all 4 of their channels together on 421–424.
Of course, this second scenario could still happen in the future if BT, Eir and Sky are willing to do deals with each other. But, it would have caused less disruption if it was done as part of the reshuffle.
Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that Eurosport don’t have any spare slots on the Sky EPG any more. So, if they were to launch any new channels, they would have to launch at the end of the Sports section of the EPG. And the lower down you are in your genre’s list of channels, the less viewers you are likely to get. And the less likely you are to survive.
It’s not looking good. Eurosport seem happy enough to just shove things onto the Player.
Maybe I am just a dinosaur, but I don’t particularly like watching things on the internet. With the internet, you are restricted by the speed of your connection and (if you are not on an unlimited contract) usage limits. And if your internet connection goes down (as happened when I was watching the North-West 200 online last month), that’s your viewing over. Plus, you can’t record so, if what you are watching doesn’t get archived, you are goosed.
All in all, I much prefer to watch things on a TV, where you get less uncertainty, better picture quality as well as the ability to record.
The BBC keeps talking about seeing it’s future as being internet only. So, I wonder if this is what Eurosport is working towards as well.
I really hope not.
CaroLiza_fan
) got himself a Amazon Prime subscription earlier this year and I found out that you can book the Eurosport Player channel for 4.99€ per month on a monthly basis. So you can cancel the channel subscription anytime. The ideal solution for me!
