BT to charge £5 for sport via sky box

Seems my premier league football from BT is to cost £5 per month via my Sky Box despite my being a BT broadband customer

"Free" didn't last long, did it?

Good, I am sick of subsidising football with non-football related activities.

(buying broadband, having a non-sports sky subscription where the prices go up each time there is football to pay for. 10% a year!!!)

In reply to a post by nemeth782:

Good, I am sick of subsidising football with non-football related activities.

Don't then.

Sick of the increases in line rental (BT consumer) that are subsiding BT sport and all the sainsbury's vouchers /Cash-backs .free or half price deals on BT broadband

Don't think this £5 is going to mean you are going to stop subsidising any time soon!

When we joined BT last year for our broadband we was asked about the free BT Sports, but we declined due to it not supporting Multi Room LOL, no point in fighting over the one HD Box that has it.

Paul

Looks like BT Sport 1 (will be known as BT Sport Lite pack) will still be free for you, is that where most Premier games are shown?

Edited by dieselglider (Tue 09-Jun-15 18:22:36)

Looks like access via Sky platform will be £5 or access via internet stream for free for BT Sport.

BT Sport Europe looks like it will only available via BT TV as they are showing every Euro game with many running concurrently so not really viable via Sky platform.

My back of the envelope calculations show BT TV is now a no brainer for football fans.

From what I can make of it.

Sky

Cheapest Sky TV access package - £20
Sky Sports - £25.50
BT Sport addition - not showing as available on BT website but existing subscribers paying - £12
BT Sport Europe - prolly not available but maybe via stream say £5

Sky total cost per month for every Premier League and Euro football game available = £62.50

BT

Cheapest BT TV access package - £0
Sky Sports 1 + 2 = £22
BT Sport =£0
BT Sport Europe - £0

BT TV total cost per month for every Premier league and Euro football game available = £22

Corrections welcome.

Edited by deleted (Tue 09-Jun-15 21:59:23)

In reply to a post by 961a:

Seems my premier league football from BT is to cost £5 per month via my Sky Box despite my being a BT broadband customer

What are you complaining about?

To watch a live games at football grounds costs more than £5 a month, even if you only went to one game a month.

I think £5 a month to BT is much too cheap to watch live football games, and I am considering sending BT an email suggesting they should charge at least 50% of the cost of a match ticket for each live game.

In reply to a post by dieselglider:

(will be known as BT Sport Lite pack)

I assume that option has less calories than the normal pack?

In reply to a post by partial:

My back of the envelope calculations show BT TV is now a no brainer for football fans

There are other options where cost equals zero for all the "subscription" sports channels. I am unsure whether a prison sentence is applicable though for those options, or whether it is just copyright laws (civil offences) that are broken.

Edited by deleted (Tue 09-Jun-15 23:15:31)

Watch everything free here and quite legal to watch. It's those uploading their premium content that are taking a risk, though not seen anyone get their collar felt, just a request to pullo a stream now and again which lasts about 30 seconds.

Edited by professor973 (Wed 10-Jun-15 00:04:24)

In reply to a post by professor973:

Watch everything free here and quite legal to watch. It's those uploading their premium content that are taking a risk, though not seen anyone get their collar felt, just a request to pullo a stream now and again which lasts about 30 seconds.

There is debate whether streaming copyright content is breaking copyright laws or not. Fact is though that nobody has ever been taken to court by any copyright holders for doing it.

There is even a great Android app (not available though through Google Play now though) that streams live 24/7 all the main sports channels (not just UK channels), plus loads of TV channels covering other categories that aren't sports related.

Edited by deleted (Wed 10-Jun-15 01:40:05)

The price for HD is going up to £4 as well

Yes, Thanks for the correction for HD viewers.

BT TV with HD for all available Premier League and all Euro games looks like it is coming in at £26 per month.

Whereas Sky TV with HD and all available Premier League and supposing that both BT Sport Europe is available via Sky and is going to be charged at a fiver looks like it is coming in £74.25.

I have adjusted this with the Sky £10.25 HD charge plus the £13.50 BT Sport charge that the TB news page is quoting rather than the £12 charge I originally factored in for Sky subscribers and the £4 BT TV HD charge for BT TV subscribers.

Corrections welcome.

Edited by deleted (Wed 10-Jun-15 21:38:00)

You didn't mention the fact that BT Sport is only free on BT because you are paying for BT broadband and line rental.

Taking BT Sport via Sky TV leaves you free to shop around for broadband and line rental which can significantly reduce the overall cost of all three services, if indeed broadband and line rental is even desired by the household with Sky TV.

Edited by Oliver341 (Wed 10-Jun-15 21:50:30)

Football fans are going to have to shop around pretty hard for broadband and line rental to make up for the massive price differential on the TV in my view.

Happy to hear of alternative costs though if you have any pointers.

In reply to a post by partial:

Happy to hear of alternative costs though if you have any pointers.

The likes of Sky and TalkTalk can offer some pretty large retention discounts, in addition to their prices being cheaper than BT to begin with. From what I hear, BT's retention deals are not as generous (but I'd be interested to hear what people get offered).

Throw in cashback offers and signup incentives which can be £200 or more, and the permutations, in regards to broadband and line rental, are practically endless.

As I say, the ability to choose one's broadband and line rental cannot be ignored. And of course some households these days have ditched the landline and are purely using contract SIMs.

Plus people may want Sky anyway as there are channels on Sky that are not available on BT. And whilst some of them are on NowTV it can be annoying to keep flipping between services to find programmes - it was enough for me to go back to Sky (although I don't have movies or sports with Sky).

If someone is going to have Sky anyway then paying the extra for BT sports can be offset by a cheaper broadband/phone deal.

I've found that since my tv packed up and I bought a new ultra HD set with good upscaling I've been able to ditch the HD charge. Very little if any difference in picture quality and £10.25 saving per month

Back to your original post, as someone said, BT Sport Lite including Premier League will still be free at least. But If you are interested in European football or other sports not covered on BT Sport Lite then these will not be carried.

"BT Sport Pack will give you access to all our great content, including all 351 UEFA Champions League & UEFA Europa League games, whereas the new BT Sport Lite promotion shows only Premiership Rugby, Premier League and SPFL. By downgrading from BT Sport Pack to BT Sport Lite you'll lose out on the UFC, the FA Cup, Europa League, European Rugby Champions Cup and loads more unmissable sport."

People who already have BT Sport will be automatically opted in to the £5 per month charge unless they manually downgrade to BT Sport Lite.

It's clear that the more different operators bid for sports rights the more it will cost the viewer.

Remember it was the good old EU that decreed that there must be competition in the industry to prevent a Sky monopoly. What has that achieved? Massively larger bills

As it happens, it's premier league football I'm interested in so I can live without all the rest and the £5 per month. My contract with BT is up in August and we'll see what that negotiation brings

Some people have said that downgrading to BT Sport Lite starts a new 12 month contract. So that's another thing to consider too.

In reply to a post by 961a:

Remember it was the good old EU that decreed that there must be competition in the industry to prevent a Sky monopoly. What has that achieved? Massively larger bills.

Indeed! It's the Law of unintended consequences again.

It has resulted however in footballers being able to have multiple versions of each of their supercars kept at different locations so they don't have to travel by road between those locations. Helicopters are so much easier than sitting in traffic queues with us - the rabble.

I wonder if the Premier League could be forced to invite bids via an open auction rather than a blind auction, and whether this would bring prices down.

I'm getting bummed over for this.

12 months ago we took out an 18month BB package that included BT Sports 1, 2 and ESPN.

It'll now cost me £5 per month MORE for these channels + an extra one (Which I don't want.)

But I have to have it as I don't want just BT Sports 1.

Are they in breach of original contract by now taking something away (If I drop to Lite)?

If it is going to cost you more immediately then you can just walk away. If it is going to stay the same but the £5 is added after your 18 months then they have done nothing wrong. And you can still walk away then.

I haven't checked whether or not downgrading to Lite at either point would start a new 18 months.

In reply to a post by mr2gti:

Are they in breach of original contract by now taking something away (If I drop to Lite)?

No. The BT sport add-on can be cancelled before 1 August, it is not subject to a minimum term unlike the phone and broadband contracts and it's not part of those contracts. So although you can avoid the £5 per month charge by cancelling, it does mean you'll have no BT Sport.

You can get BT Sport 1, but it's subject to a contract renewal, and it sounds like you are after sports on other channels anyway.

It does seem like BT are encouraging people to join BT TV in order to continue to get BT Sport free. BT TV (Starter) is £0 per month but is subject to an activation fee and rises to £4 per month after the first year.