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Sky / Discovery Dispute

Full scale war breaks out - Peace reached with 4.5hrs to go, (January 2017)

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PE
peterrocket Founding member
dvboy posted:
Sky's FAQ suggest the ball is in Discovery's court from 1 Feb if no deal is reached, in that they can keep broadcasting but won't be getting any money from Sky.

Quote:
Sky has chosen not to renew its contract with Discovery, and at any point from 1 February, Discovery can remove them from the Sky platform.


https://www.sky.com/help/articles/changes-to-sky-channels

I don't know if this is just poorly worded, or technically accurate.


Or a way to make subscribers think Discovery were solely to blame...
WH
Whataday Founding member
I'm actually quite surprised at the support Discovery has on Twitter, in terms of people seeming already cheesed off at paying so much for Sky and this being a final nail in the coffin. I guess viewers are instinctively on their side rather than Sky, as it's Sky that keeps increasing the cost of subscriptions.
DV
dvboy
Whataday posted:
I'm actually quite surprised at the support Discovery has on Twitter, in terms of people seeming already cheesed off at paying so much for Sky and this being a final nail in the coffin. I guess viewers are instinctively on their side rather than Sky, as it's Sky that keeps increasing the cost of subscriptions.


Yes you only need to search for Discovery or Eurosport to see many disgruntled fans of both channels, lots asking how they are going to see the content.
JA
james-2001
This is what happens when you have a greedy company with a virtual monopoly- good on Discovery for standing up to them I say. It's their own fault for overspending on football.

It's a good job we're on Virgin, or my mum would go mad as she's a tennis fanatic and Europsort have the rights to loads of tennis right now.
UK
UKnews
Plot thickens - a similar dispute affects Sky in Germany as well (Eurosport 1 SD is FTA there)

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&nv=1&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.co.uk&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=http://m.dwdl.de/a/59791&usg=ALkJrhgY8PB9h0lTiE6FebbFHwKvjl5s0g
ST
Ste Founding member
This very same thing happened in Scandinavia at the same time last year on the Canal Digital platform - http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2016/02/01/discovery-networks-removed-from-canal-digital/

http://www.adressa.no/incoming/article12105757.ece/hal69u/ALTERNATES/w980-default/CD.jpg
However it was resolved after 11 days http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2016/02/11/accord-between-discovery-and-canal-digital/
JA
james-2001
Looks like Discovery have form for standing up to platform providers.
LL
London Lite Founding member
As mentioned, if the channels are removed next week, it'll be a boost for Virgin Media, BT and TV Player Plus who may see new sign ups.

TalkTalk TV removed Discovery channels last summer.
UK
UKnews
Sky / Virgin dispute lasted for 20 months, forgotten it was that long.
JA
james-2001
And not once during that time did I miss Sky One!
JA
james-2001
On a related note actually- what's going on with Eurosport tonight? The live tennis is on Eurosport 2, and between 0:50 and 2:25 Eurosport 1 are only showing a looped trailer with "this is Eurosport 1" on the EPG.
BC
Blake Connolly Founding member
Reminds me that I had a survey a month or two ago asking how likely I would be to unsubscribe from Sky if certain groups of channels were gone. Things like the kids channels and groups of popular entertainment channels that I was sure they'd have no intention of letting go, and then the Discovery documentary channnels, which I think wouldn't be missed quite so much.

Of course, the spanner in the works here is Eurosport.

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