Are you excited for BT Sport?

On 1st August at 18:00 BST, we will see the launch of two brand new Sports channels, BT Sport 1 and BT Sport 2.

I'm not normally one to get all excited about things like this, however I do believe we will finally see a worthy opponent against Sky Sports with regards to Sports coverage in this country. How are you getting BT Sport? Are you getting it through the Sky platform at £12 per month, or will you be getting it for free as a BT Broadband customer?

Do you think it will break Sky Sports grip on Premier League coverage in this country?

(edited 10 years ago)

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Reply 1

Aky786UK

It's good that Sky will have a competitor but I hope it is long term rather than short term, seen other groups try e.g Setanta Sports, ESPN - all failed but BT seem to have made a huge investment and effort into this so hope it pays off. But Sky have got the chunk of the big games for the first half of the season so not overly fussed however our EE broadband is poor atm so we're considering going with BT which hopefully will see better broadband and BT Sport.

I can't see it breaking Sky Sports' grip but providing a slow burner of a challenge.

Reply 2

fallen_acorns

personally.. its a pain - why cant I just have 1 place, with all the games.. which I can pay for, and then watch what I like..

( I know this would be awful for the sport and customers, as it would provide a monopoly... but for me thats what id like :tongue:

)

Its just annoying seeing a game and wondering if it will be on sky, or on espn, or on bt - and which one i have, or will have to stream at bad quality.. etc.

Reply 3

CelticSymphony67

The thing with BT, is that it has a large cash pile, unlike Setanta and ESPN. They do seem to be around for the long haul and it does help that they have got 18 top picks, the same as Sky Sports. I ordered my BT Sport pack on Saturday, and I did not realise that they also have the rights for the Italian, German, French and Brazilian leagues as well. It seems a good deal, getting BT Sport 1 & 2 plus ESPN for £12 a month, and the competition will do some good.

Basically, BT Sport have the Saturday Lunchtime Kickoffs and Sky have the Tea-Time Saturday matches, Super Sunday and MNF too.

Reply 4

Aky786UK

Original post by CelticSymphony67

I ordered my BT Sport pack on Saturday, and I did not realise that they also have the rights for the Italian, German, French and Brazilian leagues as well. It seems a good deal, getting BT Sport 1 & 2 plus ESPN for £12 a month, and the competition will do some good.

They've pretty much taken over ESPN's sporting content though haven't they hence why BT have got all the European leagues so it's just moving content over but ESPN as a channel, I assume will only show American sports? ESPN Classic though will be no-more! Gutted about that.

Reply 5

CelticSymphony67

Original post by Aky786UK

Apparently the new ESPN channel will have Live UFC, live Baseball, MotoGP ect. The Rugby, football and WTA Tennis will be on the BT Sport channels.

http://www.bt.com/sport/

Reply 6

IanDangerously

I'm not getting it ... as usual I'll have Sky Sports for the bulk of the games I watch at home and then stream or go to the pub for the ones on BT. I tend to go to quite a few matches so it's not as much of an issue.

This is what me and 95% of the fans I know have always done tbh! Sky at home and then pub if its on Premplus/Setanta/ESPN and now BT ... this is probably why they're making it free to their customers, because they'll realise very few people are actually going to pay seperately for it.

Reply 7

Cannotbelieveit

Sky Sports coverage is simply sensational. So I'll be sticking with them.

Reply 8

So Instinct

Original post by Cannotbelieveit

Sky Sports coverage is simply sensational. So I'll be sticking with them.

It is but it's very overpriced.

Reply 9

CelticSymphony67

Original post by IanDangerously

I had Sky last season to watch the matches and then stream the others using FirstRow, so I did not bother with ESPN. However, this season, with that streaming site getting blocked into the UK, I have decided to get BT Sport on top of my Sky.

Reply 10

TheMagicRat

The baton will probably be passed to some other subscription channel in a few years time. These channels don't acquire anything that will draw the masses in. They need more than a handful of top PL games and a few of the games they are calling top games, I wouldn't. They need England cricket matches or ATP tennis rather than WTA tennis. Getting one of those could shake the market up a bit but as it is I don't see a prolonged future for them.

I preferred it when we had PremPlus. Then I could watch all the games on Sky and pay for the two or three Albion games on PremPlus.

Quite frankly, I'd be happy for Sky to have all of the packages but the rules don't allow it. It is kind of funny because when the ruling to stop a monopoly on the coverage it was to benefit consumers. I think they thought games would end up on BBC or ITV but as it is consumers are being shafted more than they ever were before because now you have to get two subscriptions if you want all of the games at home. And to make it even worse BT Sport costs more than ESPN did.

Reply 11

jilebinator

Will this mean more games will be on TV?

Reply 12

Aky786UK

Original post by TheMagicRat

I preferred it when we had PremPlus. Then I could watch all the games on Sky and pay for the two or three Albion games on PremPlus.

Ahh, the old days with George Graham. Yeah I kinda preferred that aswell; allowed you to get the chunk of the games on Sky and pay to watch any additional games you wanted.

We got a decent deal for ESPN so we tended to watch the majority of the games but with BT, sounds alot of hassle, they don't have the major games in the first half of the season and they trying to flog their internet (which isn't all too great from what I hear) for BT Sport.

Reply 13

Manchester United

Sky have Gary Neville. As a result, nothing can beat Sky.

However, I always welcome more sports channels as I'm sports addict. Thus, I'm excited.

Reply 14

CelticSymphony67

Original post by Manchester United

Sky have Gary Neville. As a result, nothing can beat Sky.

However, I always welcome more sports channels as I'm sports addict. Thus, I'm excited.

Totally agree. That is the way I'm looking at it. I think Michael Owen is a bit of a tool, when it comes to commentating, but Ian Darke is a good sports commentator and Humphrey will do a good job, providing he remembers he is not at CBBC anymore!

Reply 15

sr90

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Original post by CelticSymphony67

Ian Darke is their main commentator? That's good to know, he's always been one of my favourites. Couldn't stand ESPN simply because of Jon Champion who is so ABU it's unreal.

Reply 16

CelticSymphony67

Original post by sr90

Ian Darke is their main commentator? That's good to know, he's always been one of my favourites. Couldn't stand ESPN simply because of Jon Champion who is so ABU it's unreal.

Yes, Ian Darke is the anchor commentator. It seems that the new ESPN will have live UFC, Baseball, MotoGP, NASCAR etc. I'm just peeved it is not available for Multiroom on the Sky platform, and if one has Virgin Media, they can't get BT Sport.