Arsenal are red, pundits have 'insights', BT and Sky splurge £4.5bn on footie rights

BT and Sky have splurged £4.464bn to show 160 Premier League games a season from 2019/20 until 2021/22. However, the Brit giants are splashing out less than last time, when they handed over £5.136bn for 168 games in 2015. BT has previously been criticised for prioritising content over other areas of its business such as …

[Anonymous Coward]

That's for 6 of the 8 packages - there are two more packages left which will presumably push the total value to over the 5.136bn figure.

The remaining packages are the bank holiday games and the two midweek rounds.

( I looked this up last night in the unlikely hope that I could cancel either BT or Sky sports )

[Anonymous Coward]

Bunch of millionaires lumping a ball around a field. Interesting value proposition.

[Anonymous Coward]

A spectator sport enjoyed by *billions* of people worldwide, tens of millions in this country alone.

17.14 million people in Britain watched England get knocked out of Euro 2016 at the hands of Iceland on free to air TV.

3.6 million people watched Liverpool v Man City in Feb 2016 on pay TV.

But you don't like it, so everybody else is an idiot.

[Charlie Clark]

17.14 million people in Britain watched England get knocked out of Euro 2016 at the hands of Iceland on free to air TV.

And 29 million watched the last Morecambe & Wise Christmas Special on TV in the days when it was all free to air.. I love football but the money has ruined it.

FCUM!

[The Nazz]

tbf, back in the "glory" days, with 29m watching Morecambe and Wise, there was virtually fuck all else to do of an evening, than watch tele with the nuclear family.

And in all probability, nowhere 29m did watch it.*

*ex gf's dad was one of the thousand (yeah, singular) who completed the forms to detail everything they watched. In return they got free tickets to many BBC shows and productions. Funnily enough they got more tickets the more they "watched" the BBC programs. Or vice versa.

[Pen-y-gors]

BT return?

a strong position to make a return on this investment through subscription, wholesale, commercial and advertising revenues

Let's do some sums.

£4.5 billion over 3 years. -> £1.5 billion a year.

For arguments sake, split it 50/50

So BT are in for £750M

And what are they charging? Their top-wack package is £22/month, but they also have a £10 and a free option.

With the two subscription packages they charge an extra £FREE for Sport.

So how many free subscribers do you need to earn an extra £750 million a year. Answers on a postcard...

Or they could just reduce line rentals by a few quid a month.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: BT return?

Don't forget the price they charge home and business is very different, from memory I think it's something like £200 a month.

[Dominion]

Re: BT return?

You're forgetting advertising income?

[Charlie Clark]

Re: BT return?

So how many free subscribers do you need to earn an extra £750 million a year.

Looks like about 3 million which doesn't look that illusory. But there is also advertising and sponsorship money.

The economics look like the domestic revenues have topped out here. But there's still plenty of money to be made, especially in Asia which is inevitably going to lead to more games be scheduled for their time zones (Saturday morning anyone?) or even over there.

I'm not a fan of these developments but you can see the way things are going.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: BT return?

But there's still plenty of money to be made, especially in Asia

From the point of view of economics for BT & Sky, this deal does not include the overseas rights. That sale is still to be concluded. So BT & Sky need to make their money on the domestic customers.

[Anonymous Coward]

sports

I was hoping they would offer a derisory amount confident that nobody else is stupid enough to bid billions but you get the impression its all some sort of cartel to extract the maximum from the gormless sports fans.

[peasant]

That's less than I get paid in a year

LOL

[Anonymous Coward]

BT, spend the £1bn on something useful like upgrading your clapped out network to FTTP and improving your crap customer service.

[maffski]

I'm not sure £1bn would FTTP Bradford let alone Britain.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually it would. Last year, BT reckoned FTTP for 10m homes would cost £3-6bn. Taking a median of 450 per property, apply to the circa 224,000 homes in Bradford, and that's near as buggery a billion quid.

But hell, Bradford? What an utter dump. Why would you want to give them FTTP?

[The Nazz]

re Ledswinger

Upvoted you. If only for the massive understatement and sheer restraint you exercised in "What an utter dump."

Had a recent acquaintance, from rural Romania, who had also worked in Serbia immediately after the Balkan war. He also worked in Bradford. Verbatim quote re Bradford "It's the shittiest place i've ever seen."

Trivia fact. c1900 at the turn of the century Bradford was said to be the second wealthiest city in Britain. There is still lots of fabulous architecture to be found, though much of it sadly decaying.

[maffski]

It's just a massive hole. No, my mistake, it's Bradford

Except those 10m homes will be chosen, in part, for install costs. Feeding fibre through a recent posh apartment block might get you 100 homes for the same cost as 10 houses down a residential street.

And Bradford? Well, we could always half the costs by just digging it up and not filling in the holes, it's not like you could tell the difference.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Teams are plural in the UK. (mainly)

Villa wear blue and claret,

West ham wear claret and blue,

I can totally understand

Why Cameron forgot who he supported.

( Yes I rhymed supported with blue, rhyming is like totally a cliche, dude )

[Tim #3]

Don't worry, Sport England pours loads of our money into soccer too. So no.

[Korev]

They probably pour it into football :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Sport England pours loads of our money into soccer too.

About £20-30m a year, funded from the stupidity tax. So utterly insignificant against the rights income the League takes in, and chances are that it isn't your money (or you've chosen to have it thus gifted).

[Mr Nobody 1]

Another lost opportunity to increase the absolutely pitiful amount of money that filters down from the premier league to grassroots football.

[The Nazz]

Equality

In the current social climate i trust that Parliament will force both Sky and BT to pay the same amount for the "rights" to broadcast womens football.

Yeah, i'm patient, i can wait until you've got back up off the floor and stopped laughing.

I'm always amazed when people ask (quite naturally) why more money can't find it's way into grassroots football. Ever thought as to how little your own council care? and how much of a cash cow, in return for very little service, they treat it?