Category: Sport
-
Farewell Eurosport…
Yesterday, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced that from the end of February, Eurosport as a brand would no longer exist in the UK. All its programming would be wrapped into TNT Sports. From my perspective, this particularly impacts on how I watch cycling, a sport to which Eurosport has the vast majority of rights. But…
-
Sports Disappearing from Free-to-Air TV
There were a couple of bits of news over the last week or so that have continued a trend that seems to have only grown in recent years – the disappearance of live sport from free-to-air TV. First came news that Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has signed an exclusive deal with the European Broadcasting Union…
-
Apple’s Sports App
This week Apple launched a new app entirely devoted to sport. Apple Sports is initially available in the US, Canada and UK, and has a relatively small list of features. You basically pick which leagues you’re interested in, and which teams within those leagues you follow, and it’ll happily provide you with things like line-ups,…
-
Sports Numberwang
I’m really only posting this, because I spent a bit too much time putting together a Thread of a response to a clickbait-y post about the major sporting events’ viewerships. I really shouldn’t rise to the bait, but… The Threads algorithm threw up this post. (A reminder that “Verified” just means someone who is willing…
-
Rebundling Sports in the US
Interesting news in the US, where Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and Fox have announced a new as-yet-unnamed streaming service that will combine all their sports offerings into a single subscription. Combining the resources of ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNews, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV and ESPN+ into a single…
-
The Festive 500 and the Cycling and Running Year Just Gone
In recent years, the Festive 500 seems to have become a little divisive. Sponsored by cycle clothing company Rapha, the Festive 500 is a challenge, largely undertaken using Strava, for cyclists to complete a total of 500km of riding between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. That’s eight days to ride an average of 62.5km…
-
Premier League Rights 2025/26 – 2028/29 UK TV Deal
This evening, the first games in Amazon’s deal for TV rights to two rounds of the Premier League get underway. But Amazon’s coverage ends after next season’s Festive period games, because from the 2025/26 season, they will no longer have live rights. Amazon, you will recall, have the rights to a midweek round of games…
-
GCN+ Closing Down
There was some sad news on Wednesday, when Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced that GCN+ will be closing down in December this year. Unfortunately, it perhaps wasn’t surprising news set against a plurality of WBD sports brands and a massive need for WBD to cut costs throughout its business to service an enormous debt load.…
-
Premier League UK TV Rights – More Games, Fewer Packages
Regular readers will know that I’m a little obsessed with the TV rights to Premier League football, and I only last wrote about the upcoming rights round a month ago. According to the very well connected FT (£), the Premier League is likely to offer fewer rights packages this time around, but with more games…
-
ESPN, Charter, The Cable Bundle and the Future
I have been fascinated by the recently resolved standoff in the US TV industry between the second biggest cable provider in the country, Charter Communications, and one of the biggest TV providers, Disney. Over the US Open tennis final at the weekend, and the start of the opening weekend of the new NFL season, millions…
-
Premier League UK TV Rights
There’s a good piece in the FT from earlier this week (£) that examines the forthcoming kick-off the next set of UK Premier League TV rights. The current set of rights agreements expire at the end of the 2024/5 season, and with the 2023/4 season just getting underway, it means that the time is right…
-
IPL TV and Streaming Rights
Long-time readers will know that I have a deep fascination with sports rights, the value attached to them and the value generated by the companies that buy them. Sports bodies have worked out the most efficient ways to maximise those rights, getting big media giants to spend freely every few years. The Indian Premier League…