Streaming, sport, and revenue
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I'm a bit surprised at the private equity sniffing around the sport. More a reflection of the opportunism they see in a sport which has got itself in dire financial situation?
Or do they see the opportunity in a pending streaming rights war? Then sell out before the return to normalcy, as spending is just shifting platforms, no new consumer spending from established fans will occur, unlike the pay tv boom.
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I don't have access to rugby. So that's new. Another subscription was a bridge too far. I might put it on when the time difference drops back to 2 hours, but right now not worth it.
Those casual fans every code panders to will become more and more rare if ypu need separate subscriptions for each.
Also I don't know how the broadcast dollars add up under the new model.
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Too segmented.
The likes of Sky didn't move ahead of the times and are now having to deal with a broken schedule across the year which encourages part time subs. Their slowness encouraged other players in.
I can't see this current model being sustainable for anyone. -
I've gone Spark, turned off sky.
So, spending way less.
Probably watching less sport in general, as I have to go to the effort of turning on the device, and then the tv remote wont work with it etc. So, I dont watch the other extras at all. In Spark case that would F1 and Premier League.E.g. Spark have Premier League football, but I've not watched a second of it. When it was on sky, although it was never primary reason for me to subscribe I'd always record the highlights show, watch a game or so here and there on a weekend morning.
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@crucial said in Streaming, sport, and revenue:
I can't see this current model being sustainable for anyone.
And entirely predictable with our small population and subscriber base.
From Feb:
"Financials weren't broken out for Spark Sport. On a conference call, CFO Stefan Knight said Spark wanted the service to be commercially viable but that it was not there yet. Spending on Spark Sport was, "not disimilar to what we used to spend on Lightbox," Knight said. Jolie Hodson (CEO) said Spark was open to partnerships."
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@bovidae said in Streaming, sport, and revenue:
@crucial said in Streaming, sport, and revenue:
I can't see this current model being sustainable for anyone.
And entirely predictable with our small population and subscriber base.
From Feb:
"Financials weren't broken out for Spark Sport. On a conference call, CFO Stefan Knight said Spark wanted the service to be commercially viable but that it was not there yet. Spending on Spark Sport was, "not disimilar to what we used to spend on Lightbox," Knight said. Jolie Hodson (CEO) said Spark was open to partnerships."
I don't really get the strategy from Spark unless they see themselves totally taking over sport from Sky and, as seen with the proposed Sky/Voda merger the Commerce Commission actually wants us to choose between competing options.
Apart from that Spark want to move customers more and more away from a hard internet connection to maximise their take and not have to pay Chorus for wholesale connections.
Sport drives people to want the best connection possible which is still fibre.
Maybe Spark are punting on the ABs tapping Bezos for money and going with Amazon. If that happens then Sky Sport would be worthless to subscribe too, -
Been sucked into Stan.
But can't get rid of Fox or Netflix because family.
You've just reminded me however to check my levels if subscription.
It's a pain to flick on to Stan, have to have phone start app, find the game, and then push multiple buttons on TB set to get to chromecast, then push cast on phone.
I haven't tended to watch Super Rugby or NPC live for years. Have always recorded and watched later/next morning, and Stan allows me to do that.
So no real change there.
BUT the big problem is navigating forwards and backwards. If I'm not 'Watching Live', which I don't, I don't want to see the half hour of talking heads before, so I have to guess when the start of the match is on the progress bar. Usually takes 3 or 4 fat fingered stabs.
Also a pain as there's no real ability to ffwd or rewind.
I agree that sports are losing the casual observer by being on streaming services.
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@booboo said in Streaming, sport, and revenue:
Been sucked into Stan.
But can't get rid of Fox or Netflix because family.
You've just reminded me however to check my levels if subscription.
It's a pain to flick on to Stan, have to have phone start app, find the game, and then push multiple buttons on TB set to get to chromecast, then push cast on phone.
I haven't tended to watch Super Rugby or NPC live for years. Have always recorded and watched later/next morning, and Stan allows me to do that.
So no real change there.
BUT the big problem is navigating forwards and backwards. If I'm not 'Watching Live', which I don't, I don't want to see the half hour of talking heads before, so I have to guess when the start of the match is on the progress bar. Usually takes 3 or 4 fat fingered stabs.
Also a pain as there's no real ability to ffwd or rewind.
I agree that sports are losing the casual observer by being on streaming services.
As someone who got rid of satellite Fox a while back, Stan is so much better than Kayo. The quality is better, and with an Apple TV you can ffwd etc much easier than the Kayo app on Apple TV. I can't stand Chromecast, Apple TV is much preferable as you just switch it on. No casting from other methods.
It's an annoying though that neither Stan or Kayo are able to have a kick off option. It seems like it should be a key feature yet I assume it's actually more difficult to do than we think as both don't have it.
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Interesting article on sports streaming and how it fits into Amazon's strategy in Economist. What they'll pay over the odds for and where.
Can listen to the audio edition here: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYWNhc3QuY29tL3RoZWVjb25vbWlzdGFsbGF1ZGlv/episode/MmI4NjlmZmEtN2VkNy00ZWIzLWEwNjUtOWYyMGJkMDZiYzE0?ep=14
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I turned sky sport back on yesterday for the cricket test final.
I still have mysky recorder. For the last half year or year I have had only this service. Paying 30 bucks a month to rent the mysky, no channels. (Because I have no other aerial, and if I buy a freeview recorder, as I intend to, it costs about the same as a year renting current box, budgets still to tight)
Anyway. Uhmed and aahed over whether to just go the sky online sport now app, or turn the actual tv back on. Would cost same amount, opted for tv.
All I have to say is FUCKING RAIN FADE, first thing I record, Eng v Sco euros. Cold drizzly saturday, perfect for watching sport, its unwatchable.
Digital satelite tv is dead.
Guess I'll now see if sky go has this game on demand. Assume I still use sky go rather than sky sports now?
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@rapido said in Streaming, sport, and revenue:
I turned sky sport back on yesterday for the cricket test final.
I still have mysky recorder. For the last half year or year I have had only this service. Paying 30 bucks a month to rent the mysky, no channels. (Because I have no other aerial, and if I buy a freeview recorder, as I intend to, it costs about the same as a year renting current box, budgets still to tight)
Anyway. Uhmed and aahed over whether to just go the sky online sport now app, or turn the actual tv back on. Would cost same amount, opted for tv.
All I have to say is FUCKING RAIN FADE, first thing I record, Eng v Sco euros. Cold drizzly saturday, perfect for watching sport, its unwatchable.
Digital satelite tv is dead.
Guess I'll now see if sky go has this game on demand. Assume I still use sky go rather than sky sports now?
Voda TV Box. As long as you have fibre that is. Records to the cloud and you can turn Sky on and off. Only downside is that to use the built in Sky part you need to do the full sub and pay for shit channels you don't want.
I save $20 by using SkySportNow app and casting but you do lose the ability to quickly switch sports channels when there is more than one thing worth watching and quick rewinds are tricky.
