Back in April I posted the following about plans for SKY Sports in the Joshua Vs. Klitschko thread:
chad wrote:
Stuarty30 wrote:Typical from Sky. Not the first time they've pulled this pish! Knocking the price up a couple of quid. They should stop shafting the boxing fans and just roll out a specific channel. I'd happily pay an extra 15 a month and patch Sky Sports. The casuals who want to buy specific fights should still be given the option of PPV.
It has been reported that there will changes ahead in the summer for SKY Sports that might suit some boxing fans, and save them some money. The following is based on online reports, links at the bottom, and recent surveys SKY have been conducting with customers to canvas opinion. The model at launch might be a little different but this is my understanding of how things are likely to look come July / August.
SKY are breaking up SKY Sports as we know it and will be relaunching with dedicated channels for their most popular sports. The new channels will be themed as follows: SKY Sports Premiership, SKY Sports Football, SKY Sports Golf, SKY Sports Cricket, SKY Sports F1, SKY Sports Variety 1 and SKY Sports Variety 2. SKY have also just taken a controlling stake of At The Races which will be rebranded in the summer to SKY Sports Racing.
Boxing will be on one of the SKY Sports Variety channels along with the likes of Rugby, Tennis, Darts, NFL and WWE. This is good news if you're a boxing fan who often complains that you don't watch football, and don't like subsidising the astronomical cost of football rights, as you'll be able to subscribe to just the sports channels you want to watch. If you're just taking the one channel it'll be around £18.00 (or less) and will be in HD, so no additional HD charge. If you're currently watching SKY Sports mainly for boxing you'll no longer have to pay £27.50 per month plus an additional £6.00 for HD. You'll be able to continue watching boxing on SKY, and buy all the PPV events, for a fraction of what you currently pay annually.
"Sky is scrapping its numbered sports channels and replacing them with themed offerings focused on specific sports. The retirement of Sky Sports 1,2,3,4 and 5 and the introduction of a new package two-thirds cheaper than current prices represents a major shakeup of the strategy that has made Rupert Murdoch’s Sky a pay-TV powerhouse."
Got a feeling boxing will be on Sky Sports Arena.
Good news for those who only watch boxing on SKY Sports. Your favorite sport looks set to become much cheaper to watch.
Sky are, to their credit, realising the media / viewing landscape is changing fast... to a more niche / PPV / customer friendly approach.
We don't even need a TV contract to watch Sky now - there are Now TV passes, online passes which don't demand a contract etc.
TV Media will move to a model where we choose and pay for only the stuff we want to watch. We may pay a tenner to watch all the upcoming episodes of a certain series. We've had PPV for years for movies. I believe certain major channels may remain free or contract. And certain niche ones to which people are unlikely to subscribe will be free too - E.G. Dave, National Geographic etc (although Dave is probably developing a PPV arm for big sports broadcasts.)
Technology has enabled us to choose more and more what we view, what we read, what we see in our Facebook feeds (god save us)
boxingknockout wrote:Sky are, to their credit, realising the media / viewing landscape is changing fast... to a more niche / PPV / customer friendly approach.
We don't even need a TV contract to watch Sky now - there are Now TV passes, online passes which don't demand a contract etc.
TV Media will move to a model where we choose and pay for only the stuff we want to watch. We may pay a tenner to watch all the upcoming episodes of a certain series. We've had PPV for years for movies. I believe certain major channels may remain free or contract. And certain niche ones to which people are unlikely to subscribe will be free too - E.G. Dave, National Geographic etc (although Dave is probably developing a PPV arm for big sports broadcasts.)
Technology has enabled us to choose more and more what we view, what we read, what we see in our Facebook feeds (god save us)
Unconnected to Sky ,in this changing landscape you are still forced to take up the communist BBC TV licence whether you watch it or not .
Maybe the back-slapping brigade that forces this on us will change tact on that one too !
boxingknockout wrote:Sky are, to their credit, realising the media / viewing landscape is changing fast... to a more niche / PPV / customer friendly approach.
We don't even need a TV contract to watch Sky now - there are Now TV passes, online passes which don't demand a contract etc.
TV Media will move to a model where we choose and pay for only the stuff we want to watch. We may pay a tenner to watch all the upcoming episodes of a certain series. We've had PPV for years for movies. I believe certain major channels may remain free or contract. And certain niche ones to which people are unlikely to subscribe will be free too - E.G. Dave, National Geographic etc (although Dave is probably developing a PPV arm for big sports broadcasts.)
Technology has enabled us to choose more and more what we view, what we read, what we see in our Facebook feeds (god save us)
Unconnected to Sky ,in this changing landscape you are still forced to take up the communist BBC TV licence whether you watch it or not .
Maybe the back-slapping brigade that forces this on us will change tact on that one too !
Totally agree about the BBC licence - its exceptionally outdated. I rarely watch it and would be much happier if they fielded adverts rather than rob me £147 a year just for having a TV. It's like the window tax or something.
I am unemployed, on PIP due to severe depression and suicidal risk and I have to pay this amount just to watch TV.
Technically even if you visit the BBC website (which hypocritically show adverts when viewing from a foreign country) you have to have a TV licence (I believe.)
It may have made sense in the past, but now is ridiculous and just another tax on the poor.
I can't believe the licence fee will still be around in 5 years.
boxingknockout wrote:Sky are, to their credit, realising the media / viewing landscape is changing fast... to a more niche / PPV / customer friendly approach.
We don't even need a TV contract to watch Sky now - there are Now TV passes, online passes which don't demand a contract etc.
TV Media will move to a model where we choose and pay for only the stuff we want to watch. We may pay a tenner to watch all the upcoming episodes of a certain series. We've had PPV for years for movies. I believe certain major channels may remain free or contract. And certain niche ones to which people are unlikely to subscribe will be free too - E.G. Dave, National Geographic etc (although Dave is probably developing a PPV arm for big sports broadcasts.)
Technology has enabled us to choose more and more what we view, what we read, what we see in our Facebook feeds (god save us)
Unconnected to Sky ,in this changing landscape you are still forced to take up the communist BBC TV licence whether you watch it or not .
Maybe the back-slapping brigade that forces this on us will change tact on that one too !
Totally agree about the BBC licence - its exceptionally outdated. I rarely watch it and would be much happier if they fielded adverts rather than rob me £147 a year just for having a TV. It's like the window tax or something.
I am unemployed, on PIP due to severe depression and suicidal risk and I have to pay this amount just to watch TV.
Technically even if you visit the BBC website (which hypocritically show adverts when viewing from a foreign country) you have to have a TV licence (I believe.)
It may have made sense in the past, but now is ridiculous and just another tax on the poor.
I can't believe the licence fee will still be around in 5 years.
Yes the BBC need to rethink its approach, maybe consider product placement to generate revenue instead. However I do like the fact their are no ads, they seem to be getting longer and more frequent on other channels. I think most people watch TV on catchup or recorded these days so most likely fast forward through the ads anyway, product placement seems the logical way to go.
boxingknockout wrote:Sky are, to their credit, realising the media / viewing landscape is changing fast... to a more niche / PPV / customer friendly approach.
We don't even need a TV contract to watch Sky now - there are Now TV passes, online passes which don't demand a contract etc.
TV Media will move to a model where we choose and pay for only the stuff we want to watch. We may pay a tenner to watch all the upcoming episodes of a certain series. We've had PPV for years for movies. I believe certain major channels may remain free or contract. And certain niche ones to which people are unlikely to subscribe will be free too - E.G. Dave, National Geographic etc (although Dave is probably developing a PPV arm for big sports broadcasts.)
Technology has enabled us to choose more and more what we view, what we read, what we see in our Facebook feeds (god save us)
Now TV is owned by Sky, so arguably they did realise the landscape had changed a long time ago. They've just been milking the subscription model for as long as they can before making large scale changes.
"Broughton also suggests that by having genre-themed sports channels each will effectively act as a “profit and loss” account for the popularity of each sport and therefore what the rights are really worth to Sky."
I have long suspected that football is the only sport which has a major impact on Sky subscriptions - wonder how the new model would play out. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Sky end up dumping a load of the sports they currently cover.
They'll finally realise nobody actually watches the cricket, and all the cricketers will have to get themselves a job to make up for the amount Sky take off them. All people ever do at work or in the pub is say "Whats the cricket score?" I'm telling you, who the feck has 5 weeks spare to watch the Ashes?
I wonder if boxing will get its own channel? Sky have a huge back catalogue to go delve into.
boxingknockout wrote:Sky are, to their credit, realising the media / viewing landscape is changing fast... to a more niche / PPV / customer friendly approach.
We don't even need a TV contract to watch Sky now - there are Now TV passes, online passes which don't demand a contract etc.
TV Media will move to a model where we choose and pay for only the stuff we want to watch. We may pay a tenner to watch all the upcoming episodes of a certain series. We've had PPV for years for movies. I believe certain major channels may remain free or contract. And certain niche ones to which people are unlikely to subscribe will be free too - E.G. Dave, National Geographic etc (although Dave is probably developing a PPV arm for big sports broadcasts.)
Technology has enabled us to choose more and more what we view, what we read, what we see in our Facebook feeds (god save us)
Unconnected to Sky ,in this changing landscape you are still forced to take up the communist BBC TV licence whether you watch it or not .
Maybe the back-slapping brigade that forces this on us will change tact on that one too !
Totally agree about the BBC licence - its exceptionally outdated. I rarely watch it and would be much happier if they fielded adverts rather than rob me £147 a year just for having a TV. It's like the window tax or something.
I am unemployed, on PIP due to severe depression and suicidal risk and I have to pay this amount just to watch TV.
Technically even if you visit the BBC website (which hypocritically show adverts when viewing from a foreign country) you have to have a TV licence (I believe.)
It may have made sense in the past, but now is ridiculous and just another tax on the poor.
I can't believe the licence fee will still be around in 5 years.
Unless it's changed since Feb, a TV license is only needed to watch and record LIVE tv (including international tv) and using iPlayer. Not to go on the BBC site.
There is some seriously grey areas, such as online exclusive content, and what is great considered live TV. I.E. NFL Pass has been considered live TV but for all intents is online exclusive, which leaves questions as to things like TOP RANK TV. 2 trainers working in the customer services department we're unable to get concrete answers and the twitter seems to change it's answers frequently.
As for Sky, I think they were really slow to react to the public, and multitude of ways we can now consume media, and the legal alternatives to using Sky
SAPFO wrote:They'll finally realise nobody actually watches the cricket, and all the cricketers will have to get themselves a job to make up for the amount Sky take off them. All people ever do at work or in the pub is say "Whats the cricket score?" I'm telling you, who the feck has 5 weeks spare to watch the Ashes?
I wonder if boxing will get its own channel? Sky have a huge back catalogue to go delve into.
Doubt and I hope not either, it would be Sky's version of allegedly. I would like to see more boxing in with other contact sports such as Rugby
"For the first time, Sky Sports will also offer something for fans not looking for the full breadth of sports, but are interested in specific sports. The new line-up is designed to grow this customer base and offers flexibility to subscribe to individual channel packages at a new price. One channel pack will be available for just £18 per month, two for £22 and three for £26. "
"Sky Sports Action & Sky Sports Arena -
The home of rugby union (England, European and domestic rugby union, the British & Irish Lions), rugby Super League, ATP tennis, PDC darts (including World Championship), world championship boxing, NFL, WWE, GAA, netball and more"
"For the first time, Sky Sports will also offer something for fans not looking for the full breadth of sports, but are interested in specific sports. The new line-up is designed to grow this customer base and offers flexibility to subscribe to individual channel packages at a new price. One channel pack will be available for just £18 per month, two for £22 and three for £26. "
"Sky Sports Action & Sky Sports Arena -
The home of rugby union (England, European and domestic rugby union, the British & Irish Lions), rugby Super League, ATP tennis, PDC darts (including World Championship), world championship boxing, NFL, WWE, GAA, netball and more"
Launches July 18th.
Quelle fvcking surprise - boxing will be spread over 2 channels to 'encourage' fans to purchase a 2 channel pack instead of being able to buy just the 1. Add the PPVs on top, and I doubt boxing fans will be any better off.
