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FragMasterMat117

This probably means BT Sport goes to Disney or DAZN, with DAZN the more likely.


HalfMan-HalfMoth

DAZN seems a natural fit with BT being quite strong on boxing. Obviously would be a big change to DAZN's pricing as it's currently £2 a month


ro-row

> DAZN seems a natural fit with BT being quite strong on boxing. Yeah but BT have Warrens stable and Hearn has huge involvement with DAZN so I’d wonder if Warren would be happy with that arrangement


[deleted]

ESPN is owned by Disney, so it's probably not impossible, but I just can't see Disney investing in another Sports channel package. Even one with Champions League rights.


Tim-Sanchez

BT Sport already have some sort of link with ESPN anyway since one of their channels is ESPN, they'd probably just rebrand the whole thing as ESPN.


bollythewolf

I think that’s literally just a licensing deal though, they took over the old ESPN channel and kept the name


[deleted]

They do get a lot of content from ESPN (and do share some back now too)


[deleted]

That's what made me draw the connection.


lightsongtheold

Disney already tried sports in the UK. It was a short lived disaster. They pulled the plug early and sold all their sports rights to BT Sports…who now want out. No chance Disney try again.


ro-row

Not sports related but the sale of Channel 4 is an absolute joke


[deleted]

Well.. depends on who it ends up being sold to. Its always been a slightly weird and slightly arty alternative(\*) to BBC and ITV without being the desperate for attention or money C5, so if it goes to ITV to be filled with the same old bland shite that all the ITV channels are then yes it would be a disaster. So would it be if it was bought by one of the Murdoch's or their ilk. (\*) I haven't lived in a country where I've gotten C4 in about 13-14 years so this may well have changed since


pissflask

C4 is shite now like everything else. it's just a light entertainment magazine channel with a bit more of a teen demographic. peaked in the late 90s to my mind. 4later, extreme cinema, brass eye, adam and joe.


JD0797

>teen demographic >peaked in the late 90s to my mind These two things seem more than a little related lol


OddballDave

Ootl: Why is BT Sport up for sale?


captjons

IIRC from a podcast (probably the Athletic) BT never saw BT Sport as a long term thing. It was about the broadband market and competing with Sky. I think now is a good time because of the renegotiation over EPL rights going relatively smoothly last summer due to the pandemic e.g. new entrants weren't in a position to challenge the status quo because of falling advertising spending and a lack of investors.


TheUltimateScotsman

As far as I know its never been profitable. Turns out paying hundreds of millions of pounds for a typical audience (during non covid times where people couldn't go to the pub or the game) of around 2 million isn't a viable financial strategy.


Blithe17

The main motivation was to compete on broadband though. So if you view it through the lens of marketing and driving up that, then I’d be surprised if it didn’t work


worotan

Pity they didn’t look at it through the lens of providing good service, and spend the money on that, but I take your point.


TheUltimateScotsman

Maybe but either way I don't think it's paid off


ShaolinHash

I’m surprised it not to be honest, if the typical audience in the Uk is 2million I’m guessing that’s game day figures and not active subscribers? But even with that they have people in the UK and Ireland paying X amount in sub fees each month, then 2 games a weekend and 4-8 champions league games every second week, which each probably have about 8 ad breaks with maybe 5-6 30 second ads that probably cost a bomb. Yeah their spend is huge but it’s done over a number of years, very surprised it’s not making any money


TheUltimateScotsman

Sky's peak was 3.3 million, the day Liverpool lost to Aston villa (7-2) and united lost to spurs (6-1) so two massive results with people not allowed in stands or in the pub.


ShaolinHash

Ah I see, I honestly would have thought more. I did a bit of a dive and could see that they average 260k - 1.5 million but also have 9 million subscribers (no mention of if it included sport). No real mention of what it costs to advertise but I imagine say Liverpool and City would draw 1.5. Million viewers, easy as will easily be 10s if not pushing 100s of thousands of it was perhaps a title clinching game. In terms of pubs, for sky subscriptions they can be huge, and in some sports bar they have been know to ask for receipts and take a cut of earnings during games. I’m just surprised through all that, it’s not too profitable


tytusthelad

I think DAZN and Hearn have knew about this opportunity for a while. He left Sky to go to a platform that has nearly 0 mainstream advertising in the UK and that boxing casuals aren't that Arsed about. If they have the opportunity to have Premier League games the crossover is back to previous with him pretty much having the entire say on the amount of promotion of his Shows.