Watching LIVE Sports - SO expensive.

[DorsetJon]

In this day and age,its become so expensive(and for some,terribly confusing)to be able to watch live sport,on the telly box.We first subscribed to Sky over thirty years ago for its sports channels,predominantly for the footy and the wwf wrestling.

But fast forward thirty years,you have a right mish mash of channels and platforms,who have either lost the rights for a certain sport,or indeed won the rights for another,and you have to go out and cough up yet another monthly sub,just to enable you to watch your favourite sport.

Off the top of my head youve got :-

Sky sports,Eurosport,TNT Sports(BT Sport,that was)Premium 1 & 2,Amazon Prime.

All of whom lose/gain or rotate content on a regular basis,which makes it so potentially expensive and difficult(especially for older viewers)to keep a grasp on things

And thats before you get into the realms of the RIP OFF that is box office events.

"Anyone else agree with me,that viewing sport at home nowadays has become a bit of a headache,withe whole ethos of watching live sport,needing to streamlined or at the very least simplified for us ALL?"

[Annie+UK]

It's even more of a headache and vastly more expensive if you have to go to the venue to watch

[MarkGoldsmith]

Thats the way it works, the sports rights will go to the highest bidder and no one sports provider will be able ot afford all the rights. Its worth noting that in terms of broadcasting Sports rights as deemed as the crown jewel and generally thats the only type of TV programming that is still watched live. Being watched live means that in an ever dwindling advertising revenue market most broadcasters can fetch their highest ad rates during the live sports programming.

If you are concerned about how you have to subscribe to many platforms to watch all the various different sports broadcasts, it will likely get a whole lot more complicated and expensive, if you are a fan of multiple sports, within the next decade. Once the sports rights bubble burst as broadcasters can no longer afford them at the current rates, i'd expect most of the major sports organizations to setup their own streaming platforms that you would need to subscribe to watch their content (or perhaps they would partner with a provider who already have the infrastructure for it, similar to MLS and Apple TV, where you have to pay an additional subscription purely to watch the MLS content).  

[nolte]

The expensive tv packages is why those sports persons are earning millions of pounds/dollars/ euro

The box office events, if people weren't interested in paying the money, they would have stopped putting boxing, mma, wwe etc events on box office

[TimmyBGood]

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@DorsetJon wrote:

"Anyone else agree with me,that viewing sport at home nowadays has become a bit of a headache,withe whole ethos of watching live sport,needing to streamlined or at the very least simplified for us ALL?"

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That seems rather unlikely now almost all sports are terminally addicted to television money.  The only way the situation could be 'simplified' would be to have only one rights holder per discipline, which (for example in the Premier League rights auction) isn't done specifically to at least pretend there's some competition between broadcasters.

[TimmyBGood]

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@DorsetJon wrote:

And thats before you get into the realms of the RIP OFF that is box office events.

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Perhaps not entirely unrelated to offering, for example, multi-million dollar purses to YouTubers?

Worth remembering that Sky is just the distributor, and has to buy broadcast rights at commercial rates from the actual promoters.  The alternative is not to carry the events at all.

[Oddie2004]

I only watch football,cricket and tennis and being a VIP of over 20 years just recontracted my subscription for another 18 months and got a great deal inc TNT so no complaints from me.

[DorsetJon]

Thanks for the replies,everyone.

I would say the futures bright,but it plainly isn't.

And with vast swathes of the UK still without good quality broadband,streaming platforms and services really aren't a go to,for millions of people.

Bring back Grandstand and The World Of Sport,all is forgiven.

[DorsetJon]

Blimey,someone who has got a GREAT DEAL from Sky,when trying to source a contract renewal.

Surely that merits its own forum post,Oddie2004.

Fair play to you,for bucking everybody elses trend though,who are either paying more,or have left Sky.

[TimmyBGood]

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@DorsetJon wrote:

Bring back Grandstand

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Perhaps worth noting that the amount Sky pays each season for their share of Premier League matches is the equivalent of something over 25% of the annual income which the BBC gets from the Licence Fee.  PL plus F1 rights would cost around 1/3 of what the entire BBC (television, radio and online) runs on in a year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-51376255 

Historically it was the arrival of Sky which broke the free-to-air Sports broadcasting tradition, and it's inconceivable that will return.

[Oddie2004]

I have always managed to get a good deal inc broadband and talk but speak to Customer Priority Team rather then the normal channels when I recontract because I also get a loyalty discount for being a long time VIP of over 22 years.Its not all bad but can take over an hour on the phone to sort it all out but well worth it.

[DorsetJon]

@Oddie2004 Here at home we've been with Sky for over thirty years.

The last couple of times we've rang to source a new contract,we've always spoken to a foreign call centre member of staff,with the language barrier proving tough for both parties.

But IF Sky dont meet us halfway,we'll be off.

[DorsetJon]

@TimmyBGood I feel sorry for people who are actually PAYING to watch formula one,right now.

One of the so called jewels in Sky's repertoire,has become a yawn fest

No amount of grid walks or puditry can ice over that,its a real shame.

Give them ALL the same car,and abolish all of the electronic assists and toys from the cars.

Same car,same chassis,same ego's.

Even watching Channel 4's highlights which is free to air is a painful watch,wherby you have David Coulthard and Mark Webber trying to make the sport sound appealing.

As it stands Verstappen will retain the world championship,with half of the season to go.

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@DorsetJon wrote:

@TimmyBGood I feel sorry for people who are actually PAYING to watch formula one,right now.

One of the so called jewels in Sky's repertoire,has become a yawn fest

No amount of grid walks or puditry can ice over that,its a real shame.

Give them ALL the same car,and abolish all of the electronic assists and toys from the cars.

Same car,same chassis,same ego's.

Even watching Channel 4's highlights which is free to air is a painful watch,wherby you have David Coulthard and Mark Webber trying to make the sport sound appealing.

As it stands Verstappen will retain the world championship,with half of the season to go.

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Well with F1 one team dominance is quite usually for each generation of car. We have had this was being RB, the previous era being Mercedes, before that Red Bull again with Vettel and of course we have the Schumacher era.

The new generation of car in the 2026 season will change the order however it requires more than one team to get the design right in order to have a competitive season. What made it slightly entertaining a few years ago was really that Mercedes had battles between both drivers so Hamilton always had competition. Red Bull always have a strong number one and a weaker number 2 driver who will never be able to challenge the number 1 for the title .

[Oddie2004]

You are obviously speaking to the wrong people.I am paying just over £100 for sports,cinema,broadband,talk and TNT sports which is a discount of over £50.00 so I am not complaining.But I am only an HD+ customer.