Sky - Investment into Cycling but not TV rights?

Bullet1

Sky have obviously spent a serious amount of cash on Team Sky and British Cycling and are doing an awful lot through Sky ride etc.

So the question is why do they not broadcast any of the big races? (Although the Tour down Under is on Sky but think this was on last year)

Surely their budget is significantly bigger than Eurosport and more relevant than ITV4?

tailwindhome

Nothing to be gained?

Simmotino

Probably down to that very thing - the investment in cycling as a whole. Rather than spend a fortune on coverage rights (ok, comparatively speaking it wouldn't be a fortune to the likes of the Premiershit etc.) they're seeing a better return on their investment with the team and British Cycling as a whole.

I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't too keen on sticking themselves in the firing line for accusations of bias broadcasting either, especially given Team Sky's success. Much easier (and safer) to leave the waxing lyrical to Eurosport IMO.

RichN95.

ASO only sell the rights to their races to free to air national broadcasters and that's a lot of the more interesting races.

disgruntledgoat

Also, what's the point of advertising your product exclusively to people who already pay for it?

greasedscotsman

RichN95 wrote:

ASO only sell the rights to their races to free to air national broadcasters and that's a lot of the more interesting races.

So how does that work with Eurosport?

RichN95.

greasedscotsman wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

ASO only sell the rights to their races to free to air national broadcasters and that's a lot of the more interesting races.

So how does that work with Eurosport?

They're not a national broadcaster. They're a pan European broadcaster, supplementary to the national broadcasters. They don't have exclusive rights to anything, something which is necessary for Sky.

RichN95.

disgruntledgoat wrote:

Also, what's the point of advertising your product exclusively to people who already pay for it?

Some people (like me) watch Sky Sports via the Virgin Media platform.

Garry H

RichN95 wrote:

disgruntledgoat wrote:

Also, what's the point of advertising your product exclusively to people who already pay for it?

Some people (like me) watch Sky Sports via the Virgin Media platform.

You don't have to pay for it?

RichN95.

Garry H wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

disgruntledgoat wrote:

Also, what's the point of advertising your product exclusively to people who already pay for it?

Some people (like me) watch Sky Sports via the Virgin Media platform.

You don't have to pay for it?

Yeah, of course. But Sky's main business is subscriptions to their Sky+ boxes rather than their channels.

iainf72

RichN95 wrote:

ASO only sell the rights to their races to free to air national broadcasters and that's a lot of the more interesting races.

I think it's wider than ASO

blazing_saddles

Ironically, there are concerns that the RCS will sign their races over to Sky Italia
and dump RAI.

cogidubnus

People won't buy Sky to watch cycling in the UK - well not yet anyway. So there is no point in Sky investing in broadcasting when itv and eurosport are bigging up the team they sponsor

anonynonynonnon

Logging in anonymously for this, but a major media company I dealt with was looking at sports TV rights and wouldn't touch cycling with a barge pole because all UK interest will be dominated by Team Sky - their competitor.

Just by having Team Sky, Sky are effectively fending off other TV providers from moving into cycling. I bet if cycling continues to increase in popularity in this country they'll make a move on it sooner or later...

alihisgreat

I've actually been really impressed with what Sky did with their F1 coverage -> I thought the BBC coverage in previous years had been superb but Sky had the budget to take it up a level.


So I think it would be interesting to see what they'd do with cycling... but its never going to happen because they sponsor the team so all the Team Sky haters wouldn't be interested... and I'd be afraid of it turning into the 'Team Sky show'

ocdupalais

anonynonynonnon wrote:

Logging in anonymously for this, but a major media company I dealt with was looking at sports TV rights and wouldn't touch cycling with a barge pole because all UK interest will be dominated by Team Sky - their competitor.

It wasn't CyclingTV, was it? When I had their subscription, I couldn't touch cycling with a barge pole, either...

inkyfingers

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

I've actually been really impressed with what Sky did with their F1 coverage -> I thought the BBC coverage in previous years had been superb but Sky had the budget to take it up a level.

Agreed. You can say what you like about Murdoch's evil empire, but they know how to cover sports well. Football, cricket, F1 are all covered so much better now than they ever were by the terrestrial channels.

RichN95.

inkyfingers wrote:

Agreed. You can say what you like about Murdoch's evil empire, but they know how to cover sports well. Football, cricket, F1 are all covered so much better now than they ever were by the terrestrial channels.

Channel 4 were the ones who first revolutionised cricket coverage (e.g. Hawk-eye). Credit where it's due. Twenty20 would have failed without Sky though.

Paul 8v

inkyfingers wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

I've actually been really impressed with what Sky did with their F1 coverage -> I thought the BBC coverage in previous years had been superb but Sky had the budget to take it up a level.

Agreed. You can say what you like about Murdoch's evil empire, but they know how to cover sports well. Football, cricket, F1 are all covered so much better now than they ever were by the terrestrial channels.

I think the sky coverage of F1 is cack compared to the BBC (Granted ITV was rubbish) At the moment I pay enough for sky as it is, if they started showing all the races on sky you would end up paying even more and having to get the sports channels as an extra. I think Eurosport is fine!

prawny

I agree the sky F1 coverage is good, but its mainly the before and after bits they can have affect on, with cycling they'd still have to take the pictures from the host broadcaster. I can't see how they'd improve things (other than stating and finishing somewhere near the advertised time I suppose). As long as Eurosport have harmon & Kelly it's all good as far as I'm concerned

Richmond Racer

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Ironically, there are concerns that the RCS will sign their races over to Sky Italia
and dump RAI.

Well, RAI is ailing badly...

alihisgreat

Paul 8v wrote:

inkyfingers wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

I've actually been really impressed with what Sky did with their F1 coverage -> I thought the BBC coverage in previous years had been superb but Sky had the budget to take it up a level.

Agreed. You can say what you like about Murdoch's evil empire, but they know how to cover sports well. Football, cricket, F1 are all covered so much better now than they ever were by the terrestrial channels.

I think the sky coverage of F1 is cack compared to the BBC (Granted ITV was rubbish) At the moment I pay enough for sky as it is, if they started showing all the races on sky you would end up paying even more and having to get the sports channels as an extra. I think Eurosport is fine!

I'm probably biased because I have Sky Sports already for the Football so if they started showing cycling It wouldn't make a difference to my subscription.

prawny wrote:

I agree the sky F1 coverage is good, but its mainly the before and after bits they can have affect on, with cycling they'd still have to take the pictures from the host broadcaster. I can't see how they'd improve things (other than stating and finishing somewhere near the advertised time I suppose). As long as Eurosport have harmon & Kelly it's all good as far as I'm concerned

I imagine Sky would get better pundits in, better features, more detailed analysis etc.

On ITV and Eurosport the pundits are terrible and they just get Rob Hayles to drone on about how he fancies Cav.

I'll concede that Harmon and Kelly are probably the best commentators though

prawny

To be fair, I barely have time to watch the race, I don't think I've ever watched any cycling punditry.