Sky Sports Revamp

All of the above are fair enough of the many problems with this relaunch.

But the biggest joke is the fact the lack of channels and the schedule inflexibility co-incided with a lot more content being hid behind the red button whilst other channels were showing filler content.

What you may not know is that Sky Sports Red Button content has been moved out of the Sky Sports pack on the quiet. It now forms part of the 'Box Sets' pack for all Sky Q customers.

Coupled with the fact much more content is now shown on the red buttont han before, it's effectively a price rise for many.

To get all Sky Sports content you must have Complete Pack + Variety + Box Sets rather than just Sky Sports as it was pre-relaunch.

Exactly, Red Button is being utilized way too much than it needs to be due to the fact that they can't put several sports on channels (Before they could put, say, the Super League on Sky Sports 1,2,3,4,5 or Mix, now they can only put it on Action and Arena).

The sport specific branding has caused migraines because only sports that have specific channel names can be broadcast on them. They didn't need two football channels but like every broadcaster football is their main priority. For example, the WC Qualifiers on Tuesday only saw two games on the main channels, Main Event, Football and Mix but about 10 games were on red button, hugely inflexible scheduling even because people have to pay extra to see Red Button anyway.

More annoying this week was the fact they simulcast the same match on Sky Sports Football & Main Event when they could have shown other qualifiers and even more annoying on Sky Sports News and in tv listings they never mentioned the matches on Sky Sports Mix, for example the Northern Ireland and Wales matches on Monday and Tuesday were advertised as being on Sky Sports Football red button when they were also being shown on Sky Sports Mix.

Another more infuriating thing for the Welsh fans the match on Tuesday night against Moldova on Sky Sports Mix had no studio presentation just started with the commentators at 7.40pm which is very poor for a major sports broadcaster like Sky Sports, you can see through it for a small channel like Quest TV on the Emirates Cup or Premier Sports on a Champions League Qualifier involving a Welsh or Northern Irish team but very poor from Sky Sports for a home nation qualifier especially when my team Northern Ireland played on Sky Sports Mix on Monday night with full studio presentation from Graham Little and Iain Dowie.

To be honest, I would probably watch S4C instead because they would have a studio and I was guaranteed what channel it would be on. You wouldn't have something such as S4C in NI because UTV doesn't have rights to live Northern Ireland matches. Weird because I would expect NI to be behind Wales in Sky's pecking order, but obviously the opposite is true and no studio for Wales' match but studio for Northern Ireland's match.

The reason that there was no studio is because there is only one studio for football coverage now.

Everything from Football League, Monday Night Football, The Debate, Goals on Sunday etc comes from the same single studio they just change the furniture depending on the show.

I know of several people who are in dispute with Sky at the moment because of the fact they are paying for the 'complete pack' but since the changes they can see far less sport because it is hidden behind the red button that they cannot access anymore.

And don't get me started on the "Rush to the end of the program" where a program suddenly ends abruptdly to free the channel up for another event that cannot be shown on another channel.

I have seen two occasions when a match has finished and the moment it does they cut out literally 2-3 seconds later to a new program and it feels awful. Then add the main event madness that has hard cuts to another sport without any warning.

Sky Sports feels very much run to a budget, like all of it's competitors used to in the 00s

That didn't stop Sky doing different studio coverage on both the Northern Ireland and Scotland game on Monday.

The strategy is flawed. My view would be that live sport should always take precedence over pre-recorded or archive material and have the prominence where possible on one of the linear channels.

Premier League showing archive material when there is live football hidden behind the red button is not making best use of your content. But presumably that channel has some tie-in with Premier League and can show nothing else ?

I've just had a thought: What happens if the Sky channels still have the same branding when the UEFA Nations League comes around? They can't have every game behind the red button can they. Plus, what happens if four home nations kick off at the same time and, if East England is right, they only have one studio? They need to sort these things out eventually.

I disagree by that logic why did Sky bother with studio presentation for England v Scotland when it was on ITV and STV with their own coverage. You can say Sky have the Scottish rights for qualifiers however it was on other free channels and their coverage didn't come from a Scottish perspective as it had a mix of Scottish and English pundits.



I agree with everything you said about Sky changing their packs especially rushing events on their Main Event channel and hiding sports behind the red button but I disagree as Sky were able to have studio presentation in London for both Scotland and Northern Ireland matches on Monday night. Yes Sky have a budget but if they can have presentation for small competitions like the Johnstone Paint Trophy and the Irish Premiership then they can do it for a qualifying match involving the Welsh National Team, imagine the stick BT Sport or ITV would get if they didn't have presentation on an England qualifier but it seems because it's Sky they are immune to criticism. I would certainly be raging if I was watching a Northern Ireland match on Sky Sports with no studio presentation when they have always done it and BBC NI did previously.

Sky have always got away with things BT and ITV would never get away for. Sky would of course have a budget but like you said, it would be significantly higher than Eurosport's or BT's because they have presentation for the smaller competitions. I wouldn't mind Welsh Qualifiers moving to BBC or ITV in the future but obviously that wont happen because Sky have the overarching rights to the World Cup Qualifiers in general. Although, I might be able to see Wales on BBC and ITV next year.

I didn't see those matches, I just went on the fact that every single football show I have seen that has not been presented on location has come from exactly the same studio with a change of furniture and colour, it's clearly a cost saving measure since having less studios reduces costs, either way there is certainly less studios being used since the rebrand than before.

EFL Coverage, Goals on Sunday, Monday Night Football, non on location Premier League games, The Debate, Prediction show are all coming from the same place and possibly Sunday Supplement too (with aid of props to make it look like last year) Previously there was 3 studios used for football coverage and another occasional one, now I've only seen one all season.

Then add to the fact that other sports have also had a reduction in studios as well, cricket lost it's dedicated studios which was used for anchoring overseas matches and The Verdict coverage and Sky must have really reduced the number that are being used on a regular basis.

Put simply the Sky Sports Relaunch was about saving money and bringing costs down in the business with the spin that they were offering customers something new and better and cheaper whilst actually massively increasing the price of getting full Sky Sports coverage by the back door and hoping that nobody will notice by shifting it to the red button.

To get the Red Button coverage you need: Sky Sports Complete Pack (£2 + Sky Sports HD Pack (£10) + Box Sets pack £38 if you are a Sky Q customer since the relaunch, this comes to £76 to watch what you could have saw for £50 before the relaunch.

No doubt Sky have figured that anything they lose on Sky Sports subscriptions can be made up by forcing more people to take out higher packages in other areas, this is no doubt the same reason they are now forcing you to take multi-room if you want UHD.

In short, they're forcing you to pay for stuff you don't want or need to get the stuff you want.

The lack of a studio presentation didn't put me off watching Moldova v Wales. If anything it was a refreshing change for a sports channel to spend the £££ it gets in subscription and advertising on actual programming and leave the bells and whistles and toys and unneccesary crap at home.