Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Prestwick" data-source="post: 605425" data-attributes="member: 13794">Oh I did. I don&#039;t&nbsp; think you&#039;re still not fully aware of how BT are playing this game which&nbsp; is much like how Sky played it in the 1990s when they broke onto the&nbsp; scene. And you left out pubs, clubs and other hospitality establishments (who all pay Â£70 for the privilege of BT Sport) because...? &nbsp;I&nbsp; think BT are fully aware of what they were getting themselves into and&nbsp; have the cash reserves and income to cover the expenditure on these&nbsp; items. They can afford this and far from cutting and running they&#039;ve got the confidence to push even further in the short term. They&#039;ve beaten City expectations on profits and revenue, boosting&nbsp; both with rigorous cost cutting in their other operations and the boost&nbsp; in their share price in the past couple of days reflects that&nbsp; confidence. They&#039;ve also added more broadband customers to their&nbsp; collection and boosted sales by other 4% which is the highest in a&nbsp; decade. They&#039;ve also shed less customers in five years. Most&nbsp; importantly, they&#039;re adding more TV customers each quarter than Sky.Actually, the current figure is more double what you&#039;re quoting...&nbsp; <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/31/bt-sport-channels-attract-2-million-customers" target="_blank">www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/31/bt-sport-channels-attract-2-million-customers</a>&nbsp; . At&nbsp; the end of the day the ever expanding arms race can&#039;t continue forever&nbsp; and there will be some sort of agreement between the two sides&nbsp; eventually but until then BT have an aggressive policy in place to out&nbsp; bid Sky to steal key parts of their sporting empire from them funded by&nbsp; increased sales and aggressive cost cutting in their core businesses.&nbsp; Expect BT to start opening discreet back-channels to both the ECB and&nbsp; the Home Unions to discuss terms for nicking England Cricket and Lions&nbsp; coverage in the latter half of this decade.EDIT: The Guardian also have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/11/gavin-patterson-bt-sport-champions-league" target="_blank">this excellent article</a> with an excerpt which perfectly sums up what I&#039;m saying about BT&#039;s strategy (and who&#039;s been advising them...):BT are ripping the primary page out of Sky&#039;s playbook. This isn&#039;t anything new and to be honest I&#039;m only surprised it took this long for a bigger fish to swim into the Sports broadcasting pool and do what Sky have been doing for ages.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Prestwick, post: 605425, member: 13794"] Oh I did. I don't think you're still not fully aware of how BT are playing this game which is much like how Sky played it in the 1990s when they broke onto the scene. And you left out pubs, clubs and other hospitality establishments (who all pay Â£70 for the privilege of BT Sport) because...? I think BT are fully aware of what they were getting themselves into and have the cash reserves and income to cover the expenditure on these items. They can afford this and far from cutting and running they've got the confidence to push even further in the short term. They've beaten City expectations on profits and revenue, boosting both with rigorous cost cutting in their other operations and the boost in their share price in the past couple of days reflects that confidence. They've also added more broadband customers to their collection and boosted sales by other 4% which is the highest in a decade. They've also shed less customers in five years. Most importantly, they're adding more TV customers each quarter than Sky. Actually, the current figure is more double what you're quoting... [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/31/bt-sport-channels-attract-2-million-customers"]www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/31/bt-sport-channels-attract-2-million-customers[/URL] . At the end of the day the ever expanding arms race can't continue forever and there will be some sort of agreement between the two sides eventually but until then BT have an aggressive policy in place to out bid Sky to steal key parts of their sporting empire from them funded by increased sales and aggressive cost cutting in their core businesses. Expect BT to start opening discreet back-channels to both the ECB and the Home Unions to discuss terms for nicking England Cricket and Lions coverage in the latter half of this decade. EDIT: The Guardian also have [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/11/gavin-patterson-bt-sport-champions-league"]this excellent article[/URL] with an excerpt which perfectly sums up what I'm saying about BT's strategy (and who's been advising them...): BT are ripping the primary page out of Sky's playbook. This isn't anything new and to be honest I'm only surprised it took this long for a bigger fish to swim into the Sports broadcasting pool and do what Sky have been doing for ages. [/QUOTE]

Verification