Presumably excludes Ireland, at least until the end of the present Eir Sport deal. But I wonder if the chances of that deal being renewed in 2019 have just dropped significantly, if BT can now cut out the middleman and allow Sky to retail their channels in Ireland. I guess it will come down to whatever proves more favourable to BT, money wise.
Unless the quality of NOW TV improves dramatically moving to 1080p 50fps during 2018, this is a horribly unequivalent deal. Sky customers getting 'Full HD' BT Sport, while BT customers get the ham fisted 720p 25fps NOW TV deal.
Unless the quality of NOW TV improves dramatically moving to 1080p 50fps during 2018, this is a horribly unequivalent deal. Sky customers getting 'Full HD' BT Sport, while BT customers get the ham fisted 720p 25fps NOW TV deal.
I'd have hoped Sky ensured BT Sport 4K was part of the deal
Given Sky got away with degrading the Sports offering to BT from Sky Sports 1 & 2 to 'Main Event' plus a Premier League games only overspill channel, I think Sky had the upper hand in offering Sky Atlantic and the full Sky Sports service in HD. Maybe Now TV will just be a handy way to sell the packages and they'll offer them at 1080i50 - the BT Youview hardware can cope with it after all, and their customers must have the line speed to cope with the required data rates.
The losers in this deal might be Virgin. They've marketed themselves as the only place to get 'all the football' - i.e. Sky Sports and BT Sport with one subscription. Now, baring a new deal with Sky, they'll be the only ones - out of BT and Sky - without Sky Atlantic.
But it may have come a year too late. This could have meant a joint Sky/BT bid for all the live UK/IRE Premier League rights packages, to potentially lock out the 'streamers'.
Also, with Sky now selling BT Sport, does this mean they'll now promote games on BTS in the same way they promoted games (via the Sky Sports News Ticker) when ESPN had the secondary Premier League live rights package?
The losers in this deal might be Virgin. They've marketed themselves as the only place to get 'all the football' - i.e. Sky Sports and BT Sport with one subscription. Now, baring a new deal with Sky, they'll be the only ones - out of BT and Sky - without Sky Atlantic.
Sky Atlantic must be launching on Virgin:
"UK consumers will have even more ways to watch great Sky entertainment content with our leading portfolio of channels – Sky Atlantic, Sky One and Sky Living – available on all major Pay-TV platforms for the first time."
Unless the quality of NOW TV improves dramatically moving to 1080p 50fps during 2018, this is a horribly unequivalent deal. Sky customers getting 'Full HD' BT Sport, while BT customers get the ham fisted 720p 25fps NOW TV deal.
I guess the delay until 2019 means it will be done in time for the next Premier League deal, but won't be in place during this one. A shame though this deal doesn't enable the BT Sport app to appear on Now TV - indeed that would be my preferred combination.
