Eurosport and Discovery may leave Sky TV

[rolfw]

??? All Sky Sports SD encrypted here on VM

I got an email from them saying they were free for 6 weeks, perhaps it's just a local deal.

 

[Analoguesat]

This won't affect Virgin and BT customers as they have their own deals with Discovery Networks.

The only way it would affect Virgin would be if they are receiving their feeds of the channels via the Sky platform (some of their channels are sourced in this way and re-encoded for cable). But I would have thought they get their own feeds directly from Discovery. They'll certainly have to if they're removed from satellite.

I guess its possible that they will just be removed from their epg numbers and the actual satellite transmissions will continue. ISTR Discovery lease their own tp capacity so that will still have to be paid for even if the channels arent on an epg number.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

Allegedly Discovery are asking 1 billion for the deal. Trying to recoup the 920 million they spent on the Olympic rights?

 

[Analoguesat]

Sky will be the ones to lose out over this if it happens - Losing double a swathe of channels in one go will be the tipping point for many viewers, as its pretty certain there wont be a relevant decrease in subs. Eurosport is one of our most watched channels so if it goes I'll be looking for a decent discount - no discount bye bye Sky.

 

[Archive-8]

Discovery is also on sky's now TV.

So I guess there will be some unhappy now TV subscribers.

 

[RichardCoulter]

There are no changes to BT and Virgin Media customers with whom Discovery has separate long-term agreements in place.
Unsurprisingly, Sky has a different take on the situation.
The price expectations for the Discovery portfolio to be completely unrealistic "Sky tv spokes person".

Discovery Threatens To Pull Their Channels From Sky Platform As Carriage Negotiations Break Down - TVWise

Short term it could affect VM for technical reasons and long term it may make the channels whilst financially unviable:

Just Sharing This - Could VM also lose some or all Discovery channels?

Interesting, may explain why Virgin have given free access to SD Sky sports channels for 6 weeks, probably to make up for loss of Eurosport if it happens.

I don't think that Eurosport HD will be affected on Virgin Media; the free Sky Sports promotion is a Sky initiative to try and drive up subscriptions.

??? All Sky Sports SD encrypted here on VM

I got an email from them saying they were free for 6 weeks, perhaps it's just a local deal.

In typical VM fashion the free Sky Sports 6 week promotion has been cocked up.

Selected viewers were supposed to receive an email and free Sky Sports for 6 weeks without any requirement to cancel at the end of the free period.

What's happened in reality is that some people have received the email, but not the channels and some the channels, but not the email advising them of this!

It has been reported that doing the following can sometimes bring up the free Sky Sports promotion:

Press Home on your remote
Select Help & Settings
Select Help
Select TV Care from the top bar
Select Missing channels
Select Refresh my channel list to check for missing channels, and to get your TiVo box to automatically update.

I guess its possible that they will just be removed from their epg numbers and the actual satellite transmissions will continue. ISTR Discovery lease their own tp capacity so that will still have to be paid for even if the channels arent on an epg number.

Well, there have been some foreign Discovery feeds being broadcast off the EPG.

I was wondering if these would be broadcast after 1 Feb to keep the Discovery EPG slots alive, but I've now been told that these are carrying Home & Health +2 & Discovery She'd +1 or something, so perhaps these will be shown instead??

 

[2night]

hoi,

testcard about this is tested on 11836 h 5/6 27500 (4461)
from Sky.com | We Love Discovery Too :
Sadly, we have now had to prepare for Discovery to take their channels away from Sky customers, as they have threatened to do. It is Discovery’s choice to do this, not ours. We never left the negotiating table and they haven’t come back to it since they made their threats public this week.

 

[RichardCoulter]

I guess its possible that they will just be removed from their epg numbers and the actual satellite transmissions will continue. ISTR Discovery lease their own tp capacity so that will still have to be paid for even if the channels arent on an epg number.

AFAIK Discovery own the actual EPG slots apart from TLC which, apparently, resides in an old Sky channel slot, so either Sky or Discovery will own it.

They'll have to find a way of keeping their valuable SD EPG slots alive that meet Sky rules, if they don't Sky have created a 'channel' with a generic slate for the Discovery EPG slots to point to on the frequency posted earlier.

This is it:

https://s27.postimg.org/4kokftw5v/Sky_Discovery.png?noredir=1

 

[PaulR]

They're really presenting it as the injured party, aren't they.

 

[Burnham Beech]

Looking at Eurosport on 28°e now and notice that the ID no longer says British Eurosport. It is some months since I last looked at Eurosport and this might be old news - can anyone remember if and when they dropped the British from the ID mark.

 

[RichardCoulter]

They're really presenting it as the injured party, aren't they.

Typical sly underneath Sky.

 

[Analoguesat]

Agreement reached, all channels are staying

 

[Lazarus]

Wouldn't put it past them that the spat was mutually contrived ...... raising consciousness of the product.

Sceptical, I know ..... but possible.

 

[Analoguesat]

I just wish Eurosport would sort out their epg listings - they are often wrong. Fair enough live sport can overrun but get someone to update the ruddy epg when a programme gets dropped.

 

[skomedal]

Flexing muscles or too much testosterone from the discovery/eurosport network.

Had the same spat here in norway last year with canal digital nordic ( read telenor )

Telenor and Discovery End Fight Over Nordic License

 

[Channel Hopper]

Wouldn't put it past them that the spat was mutually contrived ...... raising consciousness of the product.

Sceptical, I know ..... but possible.

You old cynic.

 

[Ghostleader]

Pussies....

 

[william-1]

Sky puts price on Discovery demands

I preferred it when Eurosport was Free to air @ 8 west

 

[RichardCoulter]

The deal settled upon appears to involve Sky paying the lower carriage costs that they wanted, but with some other tweaks eg Sky taking back the TLC slot and putting Pick on there and more freedom for Discovery to run their business as they see fit.

Apparently, Pick is moving to 125, Challenge to 152 and TLC to 145.

Both parties are claiming victory, so I suspect, to reflect the fact that Discovery are being paid less than what they wanted, Sky have agreed to allow Discovery to have the increased control and flexibility that has been mentioned.

I suspect that this involves allowing them to make some of their channels FTA and have a suspicion that this is how UKTV managed to get Really, Drama and Yesterday onto Freesat.

As part of their contingency plans, Sky threw some money at PBS America to make some documentary programmes, which Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media customers will all be able to enjoy

 

[william-1]

11th hour settlement of Sky-Discovery dispute

Maybe the UK will follow Germany now with some fta channels to reduce the carriage subscription bill.