Streaming Cycling in UK - Discovery+ prices!

[albion]

Sounds a disaster for all sponsors. And I doubt it will much prevent Discovery becoming a dead duck due to the loss of the Champions League.
Their current sports subscribers will have very low interest anyway, it being a far better fit for freeview.

 

[MasterDabber]

How much public money has gone into this crap fest?

 

[katiewlx]

Very strange, just seems like a lose-lose for everyone involved.
BBC - lose because it further reduces their sports coverage
TNT - lose because it seems fanciful that the Commonwealth Games is going to increase their subscriptions at all
Commonwealth Games - lose because with no-one watching in one of their core markets it further spirals into obscurity

but remember it was the BBCs choice, they didnt bid enough, no doubt because they thought like they do often in these things theyd automatically be picked as the nations broadcaster and got caught out. I mean theyre claiming theyve had wall to wall coverage of the games since the 50s, which I dont think has ever been the case even when the games were hosted in the UK.

and its not the BBC dont have the money, again remember they pay hundreds of millions just for coverage of football every year and the rumours are TNTs deal was only a 7 figure sum. ie <10million, maybe even as low as only half that.

so I think TNT are trying to expand into different sports, whilst I dont think people are going to pay £30 to watch the Commonwealth games, the people who do pay £30, may well watch the Commonwealth games (and the sponsors/ads that go with it) when they otherwise wouldnt have. That seems to have been TNTs outlook towards cycling coverage for instance, theyre less interested about people signing up to pay to watch cycling as a thing, as they are getting their football/rugby subscribers to watch cycling as well.

as for the games itself, well theyre in a bind because theres no public funding to pay for them, that was the deal the government agreed to (so do take note if MPs or MSPs complain about this), theres an emergency budget they can tap into, but only if other sources of revenue fail, so they have to commercialise the heck out of it to get it to pay for itself, and that means yeah if someone is offering you more money for broadcast rights, youve got to take it.

 

[Pblakeney]

That seems to have been TNTs outlook towards cycling coverage for instance, theyre less interested about people signing up to pay to watch cycling as a thing, as they are getting their football/rugby subscribers to watch cycling as well.

That assumption and strategy is why they are doomed. It is only a matter of time.

 

[Blazing Saddles]

That assumption and strategy is why they are doomed. It is only a matter of time.

If for no other reason than there being so many live football matches that there isn’t enough time in the day. Football fans ain’t going to convert to cycling. They’d much prefer slag it off from the comfort of armchair, during the half time break.

 

[Alex321]

but remember it was the BBCs choice, they didnt bid enough, no doubt because they thought like they do often in these things theyd automatically be picked as the nations broadcaster and got caught out. I mean theyre claiming theyve had wall to wall coverage of the games since the 50s, which I dont think has ever been the case even when the games were hosted in the UK.

and its not the BBC dont have the money, again remember they pay hundreds of millions just for coverage of football every year

Slight exaggeration there. £211 million over 3 years, so "only" £70 million a year, not hundreds of million.

and the rumours are TNTs deal was only a 7 figure sum. ie <10million, maybe even as low as only half that.

I can't find anything for TNT separately, but the combined deal for Sky & TNT was £6.7 Billion over 4 years, so about 1.7 billion per year. Now Sky get 4 packages for that, while TNT only have one, and not the best one, but I'm sure it is going to still be several hundred million per year.

 

[cyberknight]

If for no other reason than there being so many live football matches that there isn’t enough time in the day. Football fans ain’t going to convert to cycling. They’d much prefer slag it off from the comfort of armchair, during the half time break.

dont get me started , the news i catch on early shift has a 5 min section about sport and you can guess which sport they talk about .....

 

[katiewlx]

Slight exaggeration there. £211 million over 3 years, so "only" £70 million a year, not hundreds of million.

I said "football" not just the mens "Premier League" Motd highlights, they pay for rights to the FA Cup, for the World Cup & qualifiers, for the European championships & qualifiers, the nations league, the women's world cup, the women's european championship, the womens super league,the scottish premier league, the scottish cup, the scottish womens premier league, the scottish womens cup the Bundesliga, the champions league,the womens champions league...and no doubt plenty more Ive missed, but thats just TV. On radio they also cover the premier league, the fa cup, internationals, european games and I think BBC local radio covers every single local football game with live commentary across all the professional divisions.

and then theres the online stuff...every game in every division at any time covered, they even have to pay to publish the fixture lists, because each league copyrights them.

do you think we might be hitting hundreds of millions per year now in rights fees ? or that all comes in at your 70million ?

I can't find anything for TNT separately, but the combined deal for Sky & TNT was £6.7 Billion over 4 years, so about 1.7 billion per year. Now Sky get 4 packages for that, while TNT only have one, and not the best one, but I'm sure it is going to still be several hundred million per year.

well Im not sure what the relevance of that was, I was saying aiui TNTs commonwealth games deal is rumoured to be less than 10million, whilst you are still quoting premier league football TV numbers

 

[katiewlx]

That assumption and strategy is why they are doomed. It is only a matter of time.

I think theyre doomed long term, but not for that reason. I mean they have the analytics and financial numbers that back up the decisions they make and theyve committed millions of pounds to,and there is evidence that theyve managed to get rugby fans to watch football, or football fans to watch skiing, and if that means they can sell ad rolls to higher value companies for those sports, which means the rights they pay cash in, then it works.

the reason I think theyre doomed long term is too many competitors trying to disrupt the market now, theyll lose their current top position with the amounts of rights packages they have and subscribers will be forced to turn to other platforms because thats the only way for example you can watch the races in cycling you want to, and theyll get outbid without the WB backing or even if they end up on Netflix the interest their new owners have to back them. They could be another Setanta in 5 years.

 

[albion]

C4 is showing the Africa Cup of Nations.
So, with womens football there is certainly enough covered by the TV license to satisfy sport viewers.
It is the same for snooker. With cycling, I was never heavily invested to watching it on Eurosport and I do wonder how many are.

Interestingly, Discovery again tried to pretend you actually needed a subscription to watch the weekend stages of the snooker.

 

[mjr]

How much public money has gone into this crap fest?

I think we don't know yet, and I wonder if it might be considered commercially sensitive and so excluded from the routine reports until later.

But we might get some idea from the Dept for Culture, Media and Sport paying out the last £70m for the 2022 (Birmingham) Commonwealth Games and Festival in the 2024-25 annual accounts, after paying in £36m in 2020-21, £146m in 2021-22 and £304m in 2022-23 (all net). No figure is given for 2023-24. So we might expect to be paying about half a billion plus inflation since 2022.

 

[Alex321]

I said "football" not just the mens "Premier League" Motd highlights, they pay for rights to the FA Cup, for the World Cup & qualifiers, for the European championships & qualifiers, the nations league, the women's world cup, the women's european championship, the womens super league,the scottish premier league, the scottish cup, the scottish womens premier league, the scottish womens cup the Bundesliga, the champions league,the womens champions league...and no doubt plenty more Ive missed, but thats just TV. On radio they also cover the premier league, the fa cup, internationals, european games and I think BBC local radio covers every single local football game with live commentary across all the professional divisions.

and then theres the online stuff...every game in every division at any time covered, they even have to pay to publish the fixture lists, because each league copyrights them.

do you think we might be hitting hundreds of millions per year now in rights fees ? or that all comes in at your 70million ?

Well it will be more than £70, but I still doubt it is multiple hundreds.

well Im not sure what the relevance of that was, I was saying aiui TNTs commonwealth games deal is rumoured to be less than 10million, whilst you are still quoting premier league football TV numbers

Sorry, I just assumed that we were still talking about the football deals, rather than switching back to the Commonwealth Games. You didn't say anything to make that obvious.

 

[albion]

Quest or Dmax will get to show a bit too no doubt. Just so they can get the audience into 5 digit territory.

 

[katiewlx]

I think we don't know yet, and I wonder if it might be considered commercially sensitive and so excluded from the routine reports until later.

But we might get some idea from the Dept for Culture, Media and Sport paying out the last £70m for the 2022 (Birmingham) Commonwealth Games and Festival in the 2024-25 annual accounts, after paying in £36m in 2020-21, £146m in 2021-22 and £304m in 2022-23 (all net). No figure is given for 2023-24. So we might expect to be paying about half a billion plus inflation since 2022.

in theory the whole funding for this CG is done via their own self fundraising means, no government funding is being provided as that was the whole concept for why Glasgow took it on from Victoria, Australia, (who blew their budget and how we ended up in this situation), though there is an emergency budget fund of government money if it all goes t & a, but so comparing it to previous games budgets, when this is a cut down version anyway, is not useful.

though obviously there is government money funding the home nation athletes to attend, theres no doubt some money from government budgets Glasgow can use to promote tourism & health or education, so you cant really say its completely private investment funded only. But there are no blank cheques the tax payer is picking up for it.

 

[Pblakeney]

though obviously there is government money funding the home nation athletes to attend,

Surely largely offset by not having to travel so far. A large number of athletes could basically commute if need be.