[AJB39]

www.sportbusiness.com 
Disappointing news as it effectively means the price goes from £9 a month to the £35 a month a Sky Sports subscription costs.

Yes not good news for Tennis fans financially. Hopefully they’ll put some of it on Sky Sports Mix and/or YouTube. I assume they’ll launch a Sky Sports Tennis channel. I also assume they’ll also have to have an On Demand offering of every match as Amazon do at present. Their On Demand sports offering is very poor at present.

[Newshound47]

www.sportbusiness.com 
Disappointing news as it effectively means the price goes from £9 a month to the £35 a month a Sky Sports subscription costs.

Yes not good news for Tennis fans financially. Hopefully they’ll put some of it on Sky Sports Mix and/or YouTube. I assume they’ll launch a Sky Sports Tennis channel. I also assume they’ll also have to have an On Demand offering of every match as Amazon do at present. Their On Demand sports offering is very poor at present.

If they don’t it will be a major step backwards,

[Brekkie]

Amazon certainly offered a better service in the end and for those without a Sky subscription a much cheaper option, but although I have Amazon I probably watched less of the tennis over the last few years than I did via NOW/Sky as the cross promotional opportunites weren't there.

There was talk of Sky possibly reviewing their genre based approach to sport but I suspect it'll continue and Sky Sports Tennis will launch as they can basically get away with just a few live hours a week on a genre based channel.

[dvboy]

Do we know if amazon put in a bid for the rights or not?

Apparently Amazon did not put in a bid.
www.ubitennis.net 

REPORT: Sky Secures Broadcasting Rights To ATP, WTA Events Across Six Countries …
Tennis Latest news Tennis fans in some European nations, including the UK, will …
  Source: www.ubitennis.net

No idea. I hope they did they coverage as been a lot better than Sky who are very expensive and will likely keep some coverage exclusive to Sky Tv customers with no way for anyone else to access a subscription to get it.

There is the Now TV option for those who don't have Sky TV. I can't think of any current sport content that is restricted to Sky TV customers only - everything is on Now TV including the red button streams, albeit not very easy to find.

Amazon certainly offered a better service in the end and for those without a Sky subscription a much cheaper option, but although I have Amazon I probably watched less of the tennis over the last few years than I did via NOW/Sky as the cross promotional opportunites weren't there.

There was talk of Sky possibly reviewing their genre based approach to sport but I suspect it'll continue and Sky Sports Tennis will launch as they can basically get away with just a few live hours a week on a genre based channel.

There will be very few weeks where there are just a few live hours (mainly the other three grand slams). Most weeks will see live tennis for at least half the day every day. Some weeks it will be close to 24 hours with simultaneous events in different parts of the world.

I wonder if, given the deal includes Italy and Germany/Austria/Switzerland, they might do a Eurosport-style single channel visually with different audio. They will be taking world feed pictures most of the time anyway.

[Newshound47]

Now TV is pretty expensive through.

[dvboy]

Now TV is pretty expensive through.

Remember to have Sky Sports on Sky TV you have to have their basic package also, and prices for a new customer including Sky Sports are currently:
£46 per month on Sky Q or Sky Stream with a minimum 18-month contract
£56 per month on Sky Stream on a monthly rolling basis
plus an upfront charge. There doesn't seem to be an option to take one Sky Sports channel on its own for new subscribers.

Sky Sports on Now TV is £34.99 per month from 28 February (going up £1).

Every time I have cancelled Now TV's Sky Sports package they have offered me a discounted rate, sometimes half price. I do it every time my current offer is about to end, and I don't remember the last time I paid full price for it. Yes, I know Sky probably have retention offers too and many subscribers will be on legacy/discounted contracts.

I get that it's still more expensive to just watch the tennis if that's all you want to watch, but how many people out there watching tennis already have Sky in some form? A fair chunk, probably.

[Newshound47]

Now TV is pretty expensive through.

Remember to have Sky Sports on Sky TV you have to have their basic package also, and prices for a new customer including Sky Sports are currently:
£46 per month on Sky Q or Sky Stream with a minimum 18-month contract
£56 per month on Sky Stream on a monthly rolling basis
plus an upfront charge. There doesn't seem to be an option to take one Sky Sports channel on its own for new subscribers.

Sky Sports on Now TV is £34.99 per month from 28 February (going up £1).

Every time I have cancelled Now TV's Sky Sports package they have offered me a discounted rate, sometimes half price. I do it every time my current offer is about to end, and I don't remember the last time I paid full price for it. Yes, I know Sky probably have retention offers too and many subscribers will be on legacy/discounted contracts.

I get that it's still more expensive to just watch the tennis if that's all you want to watch, but how many people out there watching tennis already have Sky in some form? A fair chunk, probably.

That doesn’t include boost. The picture quality on the basic now package is worse than what Amazon currently uses as standard. So it’s effectively £41 a month. So £490 a year.

 I might be wrong but Virgin customers who subscribe to Sky a sports don’t even get existing red button channels so no option  to do it via that anyway

[robertclark125]

Going on from this, if amazon decided not to bid for the tennis rights, then I wonder if they'll make a bid to retain the autumn nations series rugby union rights, when these come up for renewal.

[Rdd]

They are up for renewal now, the contract was only two years. Of course, this being a World Cup year there are no Autumn Internationals and instead World Cup warm up games in August. TV coverage of these have traditionally been patchy - the old adage “there are no friendlies in rugby” seems to get forgotten for a few weeks, and there have been occasions when the IRFU has failed to sell the Irish rights to games, even where they have been picked up in the opposing country. The Six Nations are now selling these rights centrally, and seemingly no one has picked them up yet.

[Brekkie]

Now TV is pretty expensive through.

Remember to have Sky Sports on Sky TV you have to have their basic package also, and prices for a new customer including Sky Sports are currently:
£46 per month on Sky Q or Sky Stream with a minimum 18-month contract
£56 per month on Sky Stream on a monthly rolling basis
plus an upfront charge. There doesn't seem to be an option to take one Sky Sports channel on its own for new subscribers.

Sky Sports on Now TV is £34.99 per month from 28 February (going up £1).

Every time I have cancelled Now TV's Sky Sports package they have offered me a discounted rate, sometimes half price. I do it every time my current offer is about to end, and I don't remember the last time I paid full price for it. Yes, I know Sky probably have retention offers too and many subscribers will be on legacy/discounted contracts.

I get that it's still more expensive to just watch the tennis if that's all you want to watch, but how many people out there watching tennis already have Sky in some form? A fair chunk, probably.

Still not quite the entry level option it was originally intended to be - only the daily or monthly options now, although it seems there is a "9 month mobile membership" with a day ticket at the moment which if it includes the channels you want and you're happy to view that way is a decent deal.   

The days of them offering a season pass for £180 (usually 9 months) seems to be over though - the offers tend to be around £25 a month now.    Sometimes too it's how they package it - always thought £180 for nine months was a great deal, but £20/month for 9 months doesn't sound as much of a discount.    And still frustrating NOW and Sky think HD is an extra to be paid for - should at least include it for free with sports memberships.



On to other sport and see C4 had simulcast live rights to the Rugby League World Club Challenge this morning and then their first Super League match of the season at lunchtime.    Existing deal ends this year but seems they're talking positively about extending it.

www.totalrl.com 

“Other players” set to bid for Super League broadcasting rights with…
BROADCASTING deals are what separate a lucrative sport from one that struggles. …
  Source: www.totalrl.com