09-03-2024, 07:20 PM
Other than perhaps a deal for the odd Champions League Final I don't think BT/TNT have had much behind a paywall worthy of striking a deal for, and they've always offered the CL Final for free. I'm old school and think for live sport especially streaming is no substitute for broadcast but 2023 data showed 99.7% of the UK population had access to at least 10 Mbps internet compared to 94% having a TV Licence.
And yes, that BBC Discovery deal is awful for viewers but I blame the BBC for that one - they panicked and took the bare minimum whilst broadcasters in France and Germany held out and got a better deal for 2020 at least. Also its where regulation has failed - the "crown jewels" list states events on it are protected in their entirety so this deal should never have been permitted. The BBC and ITV aren't permitted to sell the simultaneous group games at a World Cup to a pay-TV provider so I see no reason why a pay TV provider can have exclusivity on simultaneous Olympic events.
The worst thing though was Discovery coverage just wasn't very good and the interface for accessing additional Olympic coverage was just not as intuitive to navigate as what the BBC previously provided, with the curated extra channels clearly focused on continental Europe. IIRC they had one day where they broadcast one sport with commentary from another.
And yes, that BBC Discovery deal is awful for viewers but I blame the BBC for that one - they panicked and took the bare minimum whilst broadcasters in France and Germany held out and got a better deal for 2020 at least. Also its where regulation has failed - the "crown jewels" list states events on it are protected in their entirety so this deal should never have been permitted. The BBC and ITV aren't permitted to sell the simultaneous group games at a World Cup to a pay-TV provider so I see no reason why a pay TV provider can have exclusivity on simultaneous Olympic events.
The worst thing though was Discovery coverage just wasn't very good and the interface for accessing additional Olympic coverage was just not as intuitive to navigate as what the BBC previously provided, with the curated extra channels clearly focused on continental Europe. IIRC they had one day where they broadcast one sport with commentary from another.