When will the 'Sky' bubble burst?

bianchimoon

£4.1billion paid to cover football games.. What!
I like football, but this is totally ridiculous. Relatively talented/mediocre Liverpool 19 year old not happy at new contract of only £95,000 per week! and wants £135,000 per week according to rumours.
I understand market forces as well as the next man, but this is unsustainable. I used to pay, but last year cancelled mainly due to players wage demands made me think, hang on I'm paying for this craziness, so cancelled. Getting a bit peed off that they are now buying up cycling so less on Eurosport, and as Goo said Golf.. F1 and if.. still more time to go out on the bike rather than sitting in in front of box.. every cloud

Wunnunda

£5.1bn ackchewlee...

What isn't clear is where Sky can get revenue from. If they can tap into other markets outside the UK (and that's where a lot of PLs growth is) then not hard to see how they can make it work.

A concerted effort to cancel subscriptions would do it but that's not likely to happen, is it? Like you I cancelled after the last price rise, triggered by the last rights sale so it's not our fault!

markhewitt1978

Also rather strange that footballers wages are quoted per week. Whereas everyone else in the world is per year. £95,000 is about £5 million per year. The likes of F1 drivers earn that type of salary but they aren't quoted as earning an amount per week.

bianchimoon

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Also rather strange that footballers wages are quoted per week. Whereas everyone else in the world is per year. £95,000 is about £5 million per year. The likes of F1 drivers earn that type of salary but they aren't quoted as earning an amount per week.

probably a throwback from the old footie supporters days of being paid weekly, just so they know how poor they are in comparison

verylonglegs

Wunnunda wrote:

£5.1bn ackchewlee...

What isn't clear is where Sky can get revenue from. If they can tap into other markets outside the UK (and that's where a lot of PLs growth is) then not hard to see how they can make it work.

A concerted effort to cancel subscriptions would do it but that's not likely to happen, is it? Like you I cancelled after the last price rise, triggered by the last rights sale so it's not our fault!

The rights they've bought are for the UK market, the overseas rights are sold seperately. In trying to stop BT getting any further into the market they may have overpaid somewhat seeing as they are paying the majority share of the increase from the previous deal. There aren't even that many pubs showing it round here anymore as a lot of them couldn't recoup the cost of subscriptions through beer sales. I don't see how they can avoid putting subscriptions up when this new deal starts but who knows.

verylonglegs

bianchimoon wrote:

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Also rather strange that footballers wages are quoted per week. Whereas everyone else in the world is per year. £95,000 is about £5 million per year. The likes of F1 drivers earn that type of salary but they aren't quoted as earning an amount per week.

probably a throwback from the old footie supporters days of being paid weekly, just so they know how poor they are in comparison

It's because their used to be a weekly wage cap many years ago. I think it was Jimmy Hill who got it over-turned so all this is actually his fault.

bianchimoon

verylonglegs wrote:

Wunnunda wrote:

£5.1bn ackchewlee...

What isn't clear is where Sky can get revenue from. If they can tap into other markets outside the UK (and that's where a lot of PLs growth is) then not hard to see how they can make it work.

A concerted effort to cancel subscriptions would do it but that's not likely to happen, is it? Like you I cancelled after the last price rise, triggered by the last rights sale so it's not our fault!

The rights they've bought are for the UK market, the overseas rights are sold seperately. In trying to stop BT getting any further into the market they may have overpaid somewhat seeing as they are paying the majority share of the increase from the previous deal. There aren't even that many pubs showing it round here anymore as a lot of them couldn't recoup the cost of subscriptions through beer sales. I don't see how they can avoid putting subscriptions up when this new deal starts but who knows.

Yup share price opened up down 4%, cost recuperation through cost cutting and incremental subscription increases, wonder how the non footie sky users will react to that, wish I could get cable and have another choice in my location

Anonymous

Cancelled ours ages ago.
Was told we would have it half price forever but they put it up after a year and ripped me off so I cancelled and got a Freesat PVR.
I never had sport or movies. Only wanted it for HD and Sky+.

I gave them the option of £200 ish per year, or nothing. They chose nothing lol.
TBH I am glad to not be funding them even a small amount.

thegreatdivide

bianchimoon wrote:

bit peed off that they are now buying up cycling so less on Eurosport

What races have they bought up?

arthur_scrimshaw

bianchimoon wrote:

verylonglegs wrote:

Wunnunda wrote:

£5.1bn ackchewlee...

What isn't clear is where Sky can get revenue from. If they can tap into other markets outside the UK (and that's where a lot of PLs growth is) then not hard to see how they can make it work.

A concerted effort to cancel subscriptions would do it but that's not likely to happen, is it? Like you I cancelled after the last price rise, triggered by the last rights sale so it's not our fault!

The rights they've bought are for the UK market, the overseas rights are sold seperately. In trying to stop BT getting any further into the market they may have overpaid somewhat seeing as they are paying the majority share of the increase from the previous deal. There aren't even that many pubs showing it round here anymore as a lot of them couldn't recoup the cost of subscriptions through beer sales. I don't see how they can avoid putting subscriptions up when this new deal starts but who knows.

Yup share price opened up down 4%, cost recuperation through cost cutting and incremental subscription increases, wonder how the non footie sky users will react to that, wish I could get cable and have another choice in my location

This, I'm not a football fan and it's pretty clear that the cost of this is going to be bourne by all Sky subscribers not just the one who have the fooball packages. Had BT got this I'd now be considering ditching them as my broadband provider.

markhewitt1978

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

This, I'm not a football fan and it's pretty clear that the cost of this is going to be bourne by all Sky subscribers not just the one who have the fooball packages. Had BT got this I'd now be considering ditching them as my broadband provider.

Yes this was my first thought. That amount of money can't solely come from just Sky Sports subscribers. All subscribers will be paying, even though I have no interest in football and no access to it anyway.

Anonymous

Price rise on the way soon for all you non sports package subscribers then

That 19 year old has got to get his extra 40k a week from somewhere

bianchimoon

thegreatdivide wrote:

bianchimoon wrote:

bit peed off that they are now buying up cycling so less on Eurosport

What races have they bought up?

loads looking at the sky planner, did a search for cycling and lots on Sky4, admittedly not the classics... YET!, some of these may be shared with ITV/Eurosport, but a lot are excluse

Cycling on Sky Sports in 2014

January
- Santos Tour Down Under (January 21-26): Live coverage of all six stages, plus highlights of the People's Choice Classic on January 19.

February
- Tour of Oman (February 18-23):

March
- Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (March 1):
- Strade Bianche (March 8): H
- Tirreno-Adriatico (March 12-18):
- Milan-San Remo (March 23):
- Gent-Wevelgem (March 30):

April
- Tour of Flanders (April 6):
- Scheldeprijs (April 9):
- Brabantse Pijl (April 16):
- Amstel Gold (April 20):
- Tour de Romandie (April 29-May 4)

May
- Tour de Romandie (April 29-May 4)
- Giro d'Italia (May 9-June 1)

June
- Tour de Suisse (Jun 14-22)

September
- Brussels Cycling Classic (September 6)

October
- Il Lombardia (October 5)

southdownswolf

All that's going to happen is more and more people will watch on illegal websites. Even as a football fan, I refuse to pay the extortionate cost of having Sky, I would rather go without. Now they are going to start putting Premier league matches on a Friday night, it's beyond a joke.

thegreatdivide

bianchimoon wrote:

thegreatdivide wrote:

bianchimoon wrote:

bit peed off that they are now buying up cycling so less on Eurosport

What races have they bought up?

loads looking at the sky planner, did a search for cycling and lots on Sky4, admittedly not the classics... YET!, some of these may be shared with ITV/Eurosport, but a lot are excluse

Cycling on Sky Sports in 2014

January
- Santos Tour Down Under (January 21-26): Live coverage of all six stages, plus highlights of the People's Choice Classic on January 19.

February
- Tour of Oman (February 18-23):

March
- Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (March 1):
- Strade Bianche (March 8): H
- Tirreno-Adriatico (March 12-18):
- Milan-San Remo (March 23):
- Gent-Wevelgem (March 30):

April
- Tour of Flanders (April 6):
- Scheldeprijs (April 9):
- Brabantse Pijl (April 16):
- Amstel Gold (April 20):
- Tour de Romandie (April 29-May 4)

May
- Tour de Romandie (April 29-May 4)
- Giro d'Italia (May 9-June 1)

June
- Tour de Suisse (Jun 14-22)

September
- Brussels Cycling Classic (September 6)

October
- Il Lombardia (October 5)

For the majority of these races they have the rights to show them but the don't 'own' them afaik - they've just never bothered to broadcast them. The Oz ones they do own outright though.

vinnymarsden

As we speak…..
I am looking for an alternative TV provider to Sky…the unfortunate thing is…there isn't a viable alternative for Fox Tv Atlantic etc……. :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

arthur_scrimshaw

I don't watch that much tv but find Netflix keeps me suitably entertained when I do (and at £5.99 a month).

Pross

I gave up my Sky Sports subscription a few years ago. I've recently switched broadband to BT and I get their sports channels free. I wonder when they will start charging for that, it would be a shame to lose it as I like watching the rugby but I won't be paying for it just some the top 20 football clubs can get richer. I fail to see how this sort of money is even beneficial to the game in the long term. Maybe if the FA spread it around a bit more it could be a positive but that won't happen as the top clubs will resort to their own deals out of greed.

finchy

Well, I've never had Sky but to be honest, I really feel like I'm missing out sometimes, especially on TV gems such as Danny Dyer's Real Football Factories and That Bloke Off Eastenders' Well 'Ard Gangs.

kajjal

We got rid of sky as it stopped being good value for what we wanted. There comes a point where you can't charge any more while keeping your customer base big enough to cover costs. This is where SKY could run into trouble eventually.

eric_draven

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Also rather strange that footballers wages are quoted per week. Whereas everyone else in the world is per year. £95,000 is about £5 million per year. The likes of F1 drivers earn that type of salary but they aren't quoted as earning an amount per week.

Not sure if anyone took any notice of "You V Ronaldo" last week on the bbc website,i was a bit curious,basically you entered your annual wage and compared it to the top 15 highest paid footballers in the world,if i remember right it took Rooney 27 minutes to match my annual wage,and Ronaldo 21 minutes,i did feel what you could say "a bit sick"

Pross

johnfinch wrote:

Well, I've never had Sky but to be honest, I really feel like I'm missing out sometimes, especially on TV gems such as Danny Dyer's Real Football Factories and That Bloke Off Eastenders' Well 'Ard Gangs.

There's actually some fantastic dramas on Sky (particularly Atlantic) though for some reason I never get around to watching them! Some real rubbish too as you point out of course.

Anonymous

eric draven wrote:

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Also rather strange that footballers wages are quoted per week. Whereas everyone else in the world is per year. £95,000 is about £5 million per year. The likes of F1 drivers earn that type of salary but they aren't quoted as earning an amount per week.

Not sure if anyone took any notice of "You V Ronaldo" last week on the bbc website,i was a bit curious,basically you entered your annual wage and compared it to the top 15 highest paid footballers in the world,if i remember right it took Rooney 27 minutes to match my annual wage,and Ronaldo 21 minutes,i did feel what you could say "a bit sick"

If you are a Sky customer and you take the cost of your yearly subscription (that you are giving to them) off of your salary it will take them even less time

Is their time based on when they are playing/training (i.e. at work) or just yearly divided by every hour in the year?
Have you imagined what Rooney and Ronaldo are doing in the actual 27/21 minutes they are earning your yearly salary?

They could be asleep (similar to playing in the world cup for Rooney) or shagging a model (OAP for Rooney).

bianchimoon

I do like football, but there's a limit to what my sense of fairness and justice can take and football wages and comments like this Quote :Scudamore said: "We're not a charity, I believe the Premier League is a great UK export and it attracts a whole lot of positive feelings about the UK. If you go and do any international survey, things like the Premier League, the BBC, the Queen: they are things that people feel are good about the UK."
When asked if all PL clubs should pay a 'living wage' to staff, his response "It is not clubs’ responsibility to pay staff living wage"
It seems only Chelski do.. good on them!
Morally how could you pay one man £150,000 a week and then quibble about paying the living wage to your staff?

MountainMonster

bianchimoon wrote:

I do like football, but there's a limit to what my sense of fairness and justice can take and football wages and comments like this Quote :Scudamore said: "We're not a charity, I believe the Premier League is a great UK export and it attracts a whole lot of positive feelings about the UK. If you go and do any international survey, things like the Premier League, the BBC, the Queen: they are things that people feel are good about the UK."
When asked if all PL clubs should pay a 'living wage' to staff, his response "It is not clubs’ responsibility to pay staff living wage"
It seems only Chelski do.. good on them!
Morally how could you pay one man £150,000 a week and then quibble about paying the living wage to your staff?

Especially when the staff are working a hell of a lot harder for much longer for much less. I gave up on professional mainstream sports because it purely disgusts me the amount they earn. Bring in £100k a year cap at the very most, and see how many people are actually there because they love the sport, as opposed to just wanting money easily.

Also, I gave up on Sky after 2 months. £50 a month for basic things I can get online for free with my broadband connection.

cornerblock

bianchimoon wrote:

When asked if all PL clubs should pay a 'living wage' to staff, his response "It is not clubs’ responsibility to pay staff living wage"
It seems only Chelsea do.. good on them!
Morally how could you pay one man £150,000 a week and then quibble about paying the living wage to your staff?

Just thought I'd highlight that as it's not very often the club gets good publicity. Even the http://www.fairnessinfootball.org.uk home page mentions of all clubs Chelsea players wages, even though they are the only club paying the living wage! :roll:

Frank the tank

Every time the new premiersh1t deal is announced many people exclaim that "it just can't go on" the bubble has to burst and the whole money grabbing lot will come unstuck. However so far................................... :x

norvernrob

£4bn sounds an awful lot, but it sounds even worse when the money Sky have paid for each game is £10m. It's mind boggling.

ben@31

Just out of interest, how much do pro cyclists earn ? I genuinely don't know.

Pross

ben@31 wrote:

Just out of interest, how much do pro cyclists earn ? I genuinely don't know.

Anything from around 35k euros (I think that's the minimum wage for World Tour) to a million plus. Most will be nearer the minimum, it's a buyers market. If you worked it on an hourly rate it would look even worse!

Edit minimum on a World Tour is 36,300 euros (just under 30,000 for neo pros). In 2011 the average was just over 200k but I suspect that may have gone down due to riders struggling to find a team. There's also controversy regarding riders being paid minimum wage and then being charged expenses.

finchy

Pross wrote:

johnfinch wrote:

Well, I've never had Sky but to be honest, I really feel like I'm missing out sometimes, especially on TV gems such as Danny Dyer's Real Football Factories and That Bloke Off Eastenders' Well 'Ard Gangs.

There's actually some fantastic dramas on Sky (particularly Atlantic) though for some reason I never get around to watching them! Some real rubbish too as you point out of course.

I think that you could just hire or buy the DVDs of any of the decent stuff on Sky and it'll come out far cheaper.