BT Sport - Launch of BT Sport Ultimate

Our Samsung smart TV was rock solid on the HDR stream, despite the issue with the content (which was fixed by 4 minutes into the match). I wonder if the decoding issue you were having was a coincidence.

It was similar on the Virgin Media cable TV broadcast - no falling over, and the picture improved just before the 4th minute of the game on BT Sport Ultimate. No HDR of course.

Service is now active, seems it is simply, access the channel, be presented with a splash screen then push to pay and access, the £24.95 fee requested being added to BT Bills in the usual way.

Since when was Boxing PPV £24.95?

Since Eddie Hearne decided his fighters weren't earning enough. Massively overpriced and I don't get how the sport has worked so well on PPV considering it's the one sport where you're not really guaranteed whether you'll get value for money, though lately more fights seem to go the distance rather than being over in a couple of minutes.

And since revenues dropped due to the vast majority of folks streaming the fights nowadays.

Due to them overcharging. £10-£15 is probably a fair price - but guess if at least half as many people are willing to pay £25 they'd rather go for that.

BT have been picking up various minor cricket tournaments recently - South Africa's Mzansi Super League has been running for the last few weeks, and the Bangladesh Premier League starts tomorrow morning.

Freesports also picked up Abu Dhabi & Qatar T10 tournaments recently. Thought Sky may have picked up some of the rights to T10 or T20 albeit minor tournaments to fill up their Cricket Channel in the winter outside of England Test, ODI & T20 matches.

Sky used to, during the winter, also show test and limited overs internationals from India, and any where Pakistan was the home team. Notable that hasn't happened this time.

I suspect the only market where there’d be sufficient interest in the UK to make coverage pay for itself is for Australia home fixtures against touring sides. With BT snapping that one up, which I believe has one more season downunder to run after this, showing alternatives really won’t cash in, especially having to edit out sponsorship and ad stings during play. Limited Overs matches with internationally unknown sides are difficult too, especially if the teams consist wholly of domestic players. Big Bash and IPL being the only formats worth considering and they’re already shown. BT must be paying token sums to cover their Cricket coverage over and above the Cricket Australia matches they’ve acquired recently.

BT Sport to launch a standalone OTT monthly pass at £25/mo