Murdochs stranglehold on Football increases!!!!

As of today FOX takes a majority share in TV company Eredivisie Live - which shows all Dutch Eredivisie games as well as The League Cup (our League Cup).



So now Murdochs companies (Sky, and Fox) now have greater control over the majority of Europe's top leagues:-

Premiership, Championship, SPL, Scottish Lower Leagues (Sky)

Bundesliga (Deutsch Sky)

Serie A, Serie B (Italia Sky)

and now Eredivisie (Eredivisie Live)



Only France, Spain and Russia to go......



Question is now, as most of these are currently shown on ESPN in UK, how long before ESPN lose their UK rights and start appearing on Sky Sports!!!

Chris, I want you to try and go 1 week without mentioning anything Dutch.

I would have said the above whether I lived here or not, as its more about the stranglehold by Murdoch!

bwfc71 wrote:Question is now, as most of these are currently shown on ESPN in UK, how long before ESPN lose their UK rights and start appearing on Sky Sports!!!

The bidding system for live PL TV packages prevents one broadcaster from bidding for all the packages and creating the monopoly you describe.

I'm with Natasha on this one. A change in broadcasting rights in the Netherlands is not very interesting. It only effects people in a country none of us live in. Perhaps if someone starts posting about Kazakhstan's superior potassium export trade every day you will get the idea.

I agree that the PL rights have to be spli between at least 2 companies - such as the franchise that comes in in 2013/14 season its split between Sky and BT with Sky, as usual, having the majority of the games.

But what is being created is more control over the whole of Europe leagues by a select few (will probably be between Canal+, Sky/Fox and ESPN) which does not help the viewers as that will incrase the cost of subscription in the long-run.

At this moment in time, who do you pay for ESPN channels - Sky! When BT takes over the ESPN share who will you pay for the channels - Sky!!! Yes Sky is an intermediate for either ESPN or BT but they still have control. If BT was to do their own subscription it will probably go the same way as what Setanta did - bankruptcy. Even Setanta have learned their lesson with their new channel, Premier Sports, as to subscribe to that you pay through Sky and not Premier/Setanta themselves.

No matter how you look at it, in the UK, Sky is 100% involved in football coverage.

In Germany the Dundesliga is only shown on Sky Deutschland and no other German channel, and the same synopsis goes for Serie A and Sky Italia and now Eredivisie with eredvisie Live - so basically Murdoch is gaining more of a stranglehold over the game in Europe.



Edite - Note: If paying Virgin or other TV service they then still have to pay Sky for the channels - so even that way sky get the money!

It's just market economics, Chris. Sky do a good job with football. It's not in Sky's interests to price people out of being able to watch their coverage. I don't think we have anything to fear from one group of companies having the rights to show so many games. I've been a Sky customer since they got the rights to the Tyson/Bruno fight in the late 1980s. I'm not saying I look forward to them taking 62 quid out of my bank account every month, but it's costing me that much to go to see us play at Burnley a week on Saturday.

Look at Pay-Per-View as an example. Americans pay three times what we do for a PPV event, for the simple reason that we won't pay 45 quid to see a single event over here. Again, market economics.

largehat wrote: I'm not saying I look forward to them taking 62 quid out of my bank account every month.

I was paying about the same for a while. I phoned them and said I was going to cancel as it was too much. So they gave me the internet and phone line for free and lowered my bill to £32.50 a month until next year. I'll do the same next year and they'll lower it again. I've done it about five times now. Try it.

I might just do that. I do phone up every so often and claim I want to cancel HD or movies and sport, and usually get about 25% off for 6 months, but I don't want to push them too hard, have my bluff called, and miss The Sopranos on Sky Atlantic etc. Hard to know how much they can be fucked with in this way. I am jealous that you are better at fucking with them than I am.

I just tell them Virgin and Bt keep sending me letters offering me better deals and I'm very tempted.

Now I think about it, I get an envelope full of shit from Virgin every month. Even though I bought the house 9 years ago, the previous owners had NTL. Instead of walking the next one through the house and straight into the kitchen bin, I will open the next one.

Don't want to change my broadband provider though. I used to work for a major provider and they haven't taken me off their staff offer. I get line rental, some calls (unsure which, I never use my house phone) and broadband (about 20 meg) for £14.50 a month.

largehat wrote:I might just do that. I do phone up every so often and claim I want to cancel HD or movies and sport, and usually get about 25% off for 6 months, but I don't want to push them too hard, have my bluff called, and miss The Sopranos on Sky Atlantic etc. Hard to know how much they can be fucked with in this way. I am jealous that you are better at fucking with them than I am.

They have a directive when people call to cancel ( Do all you can to keep the customer)