[JT95]

If it was on iplayer or ITVX it would be on either BBC 1, ITV 1, ITV 2, ITV 3, ITV 4 or BBC 2, BBC 3 and BBC 4 so no I would have no problem with that.

You’re currently running with imaginary hypotheticals and need to breathe about this.

Your belief that “this should be free” is purely an opinion, not a fact or legal requirement. They could alternatively keep it behind a paywall, and they’d be well within their rights to do so.

[RhysJR]

Quite unbelievably the highly anticipated Fury v. Usyk boxing on Saturday will have now radio coverage in the UK after the BBC failed to secure an eleventh hour deal. That means the UK public have the choice of three different broadcasters to pay £25 to for the privilege of watching (it's on Sky, TNT and DAZN), or nothing (legal). Quite the disappointment and doesn't feel right that something is PPV TV or nothing (at least TNT exclusive FA Cup matches will be on the radio and MOTD).

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[bkman1990]

I know that the UK rights to the UEFA CL Final have been sorted.

However the Irish rights to showing the CL Final for the next 3 year cycle have not been sorted out in full just yet. This years final will be shown on RTÉ2 in The Republic of Ireland; however this is the last time that they will show it under their current rights deal with UEFA.

It is also the last year of the current FTA rights deal to show the UEFA Europa League & UEFA Conference League matches with VMTV.

Under the new rights deal for the CL; this is how it is shaping up from next year for the UEFA club football matches for the ROI.

Premier Sports Ireland, RTÉ, Virgin Media Television and Amazon Prime Video* *(from 2025).

Livescore have not any rights deal announced yet. If they have won any games under this new deal; they should have announced it by now.

TNT Sports will likely continue to be available for ROI to watch the club football from UEFA as they have non-exclusive rights with the UK & Ireland.

[Brekkie]

Quite unbelievably the highly anticipated Fury v. Usyk boxing on Saturday will have now radio coverage in the UK after the BBC failed to secure an eleventh hour deal. That means the UK public have the choice of three different broadcasters to pay £25 to for the privilege of watching (it's on Sky, TNT and DAZN), or nothing (legal). Quite the disappointment and doesn't feel right that something is PPV TV or nothing (at least TNT exclusive FA Cup matches will be on the radio and MOTD).

twitter.com 

Not just down to the BBC - presumably Talksport don't feel the price tag is worth it either and don't blame either. Boxing has basically become a pensioners game in recent years with the same fighters just going round in circles taking easy fights, retiring then taking a pay day in Saudi Arabia, if they don't bottle it.

[News Engineer]

There are no laws but I doubt UEFA will be very happy as "As part of the broadcaster’s rights deal with UEFA, it makes the fixtures available to all viewers"

It is doing exactly that, so if UEFA do care then that is being satisfied. The viewers who watch will get a better quality stream (at the right frame rate) than they would have any previous year on YouTube.

I don’t believe the source of that information says “makes the fixture available to all viewers on a platform or service that is acceptable and approved by one particular poster on internet forums”.

Especially if that poster seems to have oddly specific issues with Discovery / TNT verses any other pay broadcaster and, as others here have observed, not much understanding of how sports broadcasting rights work in the real world.

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Not just down to the BBC - presumably Talksport don't feel the price tag is worth it either and don't blame either. Boxing has basically become a pensioners game in recent years with the same fighters just going round in circles taking easy fights, retiring then taking a pay day in Saudi Arabia, if they don't bottle it.

The Times article suggests the organisers saying they would have affected the number of PPV buys, although it also cites industry sources saying the promotion by a radio broadcaster actually helps drive people to pay.

They also say TalkSport aren’t likely to get it because of a poor relationship with Fury and not being popular with the promoters for previous criticisms of the atmosphere at fights there.

[Brekkie]

Yes - that's the thing with the sports taking the money from a country where the fans aren't. A poor atmosphere at the venue makes for a poor broadcast and suspect that's even more critical on radio than TV for a sport like boxing.

Anyone recall what the first PPV fight in the UK was - always found it odd that an event where it could be over in seconds was the sport to make a success of the PPV model where other sports subsequently failed (though I guess NOW TV day passes are effectively PPV events).

[News Engineer]

Anyone recall what the first PPV fight in the UK was - always found it odd that an event where it could be over in seconds was the sport to make a success of the PPV model where other sports subsequently failed (though I guess NOW TV day passes are effectively PPV events).

Tyson v Bruno, March 1996*

Which is fitting because Tyson v Bruno in February 1989 was Sky’s first big live exclusive sports event after their full launch.

(*There may have been one or two in some of the very small scale cable trials in the 1960s, but this was the first real one.)