Is the end nigh?

[jal123]

£20 odd quid a month on top of basic package for the football is ludicrous!! BT sport is a relative bargain.. but BT prices won't last.

BT sport is £27 a month on top of sky! I haven't got that anymore, had it when it was included in the virgin media package I used to have.

 

[Number_25]

If they made paid streaming as seamless as illegal streams, then I'll opt for that any day of the week.

 

[COYBL25]

Either that or the pubs will.

Hopefully. Sick of them being ghost towns.

My local boozer has got shut of Sky altogether, due to them constantly hiking the price up, to the point of not being commercially viable for them to have it anymore.

They've kept BT as they seem to be playing fair at the mo.

I'm hearing that other local boozers plan to do the same.

Multiply this across the country and it would seem that the Golden Goose is starting to get cooked.

 

[HongKongToffee]

Clubs will have their own exclusive cable tv deals.

Look at baseball,local stations/subsidiary's of Fox,ESPN and local tv stations signed exclusive deals to show those teams games.

Yankees Redsox created their own tv station cable stations and the likes of the Dodgers signed a 25 year 8 billion dollar contract a couple of years with Time Warner.

This is what will eventually happen with the PL if the the money dries up from Sky/BT.

 

[Khalekan]

I'd argue it is due to the massive increase of illegal / grey area streaming over the last couple of years.

Once they get them shut down the subs will go back up

Ah, but there's the rub.

Those streaming sites are like the mythical Hydra.....when one method of streaming is shut down another rises to take its place.

Like the Movie and TV companies, Sky are fighting a losing battle against illegal pirating of their product.

 

[Papa Shango]

If they made paid streaming as seamless as illegal streams, then I'll opt for that any day of the week.

Yeah this basically.

It is a flawed model for me in its current form. I support Everton, not football. I don't want to watch West Brom vs Stoke or someone. I Don't even want to watch Chelsea vs Manchester City. Why can I not watch our games online when someone from the US or China etc can?

I get the whole fuss about people not going to the ground and all that but doesn't the NFL have a black out system to deal with such things?

 

[Zezti]

The thing about subscription packages like Sky, most people only want to watch their own team play or the occasional 'big match'.

Going from the prices here for a new customer for sky +sky sports: http://www.sky.com/shop/tv/sports/
49.50/month * 12 months = £594/year

Most of the games shown won't be of the team a person supports. That's an awful lot of money to pay for one match per month, less if they support dull tripe like West Ham or Stoke.

If there were cheaper packages for only your team's games, then I'm sure more people would be willing to buy instead of looking for streams. It's just not consumer-focussed at all.

 

[Kenshin]

Ah, but there's the rub.

Those streaming sites are like the mythical Hydra.....when one method of streaming is shut down another rises to take its place.

Like the Movie and TV companies, Sky are fighting a losing battle against illegal pirating of their product.

I agree that is the issue. Especially as they can/are based overseas as well so perhaps it may be impossible to stop it. Perhaps their solution is to go after the source and implement some sort of blockages there. With vpn available it wouldn't impact everyone but enough people who didn't know about that sort of thing would be forced to sign up again.

Bit of a moral grey area all around though, you can't justify the high prices but can't justify getting it free either. If sky offered 20 pound a month for only sports for example and not landed all the additions on top, that would he better I think

 

[Neiler]

Isnt there a law that live games cant be screened on a Saturday though, that may hinder the live streaming angle?

 

[DownOnTheUpside]

I'd argue it is due to the massive increase of illegal / grey area streaming over the last couple of years.

Once they get them shut down the subs will go back up

genie is out of the bottle now, every time they shut down a site all of your mates will know ten alternatives

 

[roydo]

The massive TV audiences are relative football new comers; China, India/Asia, even the US and Australia.

Thats the global driver for whoever broadcasts the matches.

If those markets hold up, then all fine and dandy, cos there is not a chance in hell that the traditional football strongholds can cough up enough in subscriptions to get close to the sort of deals we now have in the PL.

And then there is the landscape of how, exactly, football will be watched in say 10 years. Be honest, 10 years ago, who predicted that millions would watch football on their phone. In China.

Daft to think in 10 years time we will be using "old" technology.

 

[jal123]

Isnt there a law that live games cant be screened on a Saturday though, that may hinder the live streaming angle?

They'll get round that, and to be fair it's so out of date. It was to help lower league attendances, well, the championship is comfortably in the top 10 leagues in Europe for attendances so the 3pm black out is moot.

 

[Groucho]

I think we'll see a plateau, a levelling off, rather than a collapse.

 

[GeorgeK]

Sky constantly increasing the prices and milking their existent but decreasing customer base is a sign they know it's coming to an end.

It also makes no sense. The clubs should already be planning for in the process of setting up their own internet portals with some sort shared revenue model to try and keep the league somewhat competitive. No one wants to watch a league where Man U win every year.