I freaking hate Sky Germany... Until last year I watched Bundesliga on LigaTotal! (Telekom product) via IPTV and they had 13 minutes half-time analysis with 2 minutes commercials. Sadly Telekom lost the sole IPTV rights and starting this season they had to broadcast the Sky feed with 13 minutes commercials and 2 minutes 'analysis'. *sigh*
Well, Sky Germany has to make money. And since many Germans don`t want to pay the regular subscription fees, they have to find other ways to refinance their programme somehow...
Well I'm a paying customer and the product got worse that's for sure. Telekom also had a very competitive offer on the table for the Bundesliga rights but the league was afraid that Sky could go bust without exclusive rights. Whether or not that was the right decision, I can't say. However I don't see how Sky makes a lot more money by feeding Telekom Entertain their football feed instead of leaving the IPTV rights to Telekom.
Well, I am also a paying customer - and I get to see every BL,CL and German Cup match on Sky Germany. I simply can`t complain. I don`t have any insight into Sky D`s business plan - but they seem to be making money now (for the first time in 20 years) and the number of people subscribing to Sky has grown rapidly since they won the rights.
Your situation is different from mine. You're used to a worse half-time analysis and can't complain because nothing changed while my service got worse. Fairly simple. Furthermore Sky's numbers increased for quite a while prior to the 2013/14 season so further growth at a constant level is no real proof of a positive impact from sole rights ownership.
Agree. But why should Sky Germany sublicence BL rights to Telekom customers and offer them a better viewing experience? They probably want Telekom customers to go to Sky where they can not only watch BL, but also CL,EL,German Cup,PL and, in my case, Serie A in HD. It`s not a proof, I agree again. But I simply doubt that Sky`s positive development after the rights auction is a mere coincidence.
You neglect the fact that Telekom had a very competitive offer for the BL rights on the table. If I recall correctly they were within € 20m of each other per season. Telekom also had a significant offer for sole IPTV rights as plan B on the table which would have even increased the total amount of money for the Bundesliga but the Bundesliga bowed to Sky's demands. Was that the right decision? Keeping LigaTotal! and Sky both alive would have led to a situation where both pay-tv providers are strong competitors on the market. Certainly a better negotiating position for the league in later broadcasting rights auctions. I believe they were pressured by Sky and its mother company with the image of Sky going bust and a reminder what the Kirch media bust meant for the league. Well we'll see how it pans out. I just liked LigaTotal!'s half-time analysis. That's all. It was neat and great for the consumer is all I'm saying. I have to live with Sky Germany for the next three years there's no way around it.
13 minutes of commercials with 2 minutes of analysis is par for the course in the US. Basically every football match on any TV channel is handled that way.
Agreed with this. It's almost alien to see otherwise when it comes to football matches, especially when the games are covered by freaking Wynalda and Barton.
@nekkibasara i know that you have fox soccer to go, but do you know if they will be broadcsting the world cup this coming summer? if no, do you know what would be brodcasting this online? (i am ok with paying money)
Fox would be news to me. I am not sure ESPN would relinquish an ounce of broadcasting time to a competitor for a signature event like this.
nvm.. you are right United States and territories [show]ABC, ESPN, Univision[1][31] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup_broadcasting_rights
I think Sky D didn`t want the rights. Nobody is going to subscribe to Sky D if he can see every match for free on ARD/ZDF. Sky also didn`t buy La Liga rights,because they are available for free on the internet via laola.tv
Sorry for the late reply. Everyone else basically answered this. The reason that I pay for foxsoccer2go is so that I can watch all of the German CL matches live and on demand. I'm hoping that they will offere something similar when they get the BL rights for the 2015-2016 season. Fox does have rights to the WC, but not until either 2018 or 2022. I can't remember which.
Yea, completely understandable. If the rates are reduced, would you be more willing to subscribe? Because so many people don't have access to GolTV I'm just curious how people consume the Bundesliga/Bayern games.
I subscribe to it. It's fantastic to see all the player inteveriews, every match in HD, pregame and post game press conferences etc. Honestly, even if it was available on US TV, I'd rather watch with German commentary on Bayern's website.