Sky Sports "Cricket"

[a massive zebra]

Am I right in thinking that Sky doesn't show much basketball? If that's right, then it could be interpreted as either it doesn't get views because it's not on, or it's not on because it doesn't get views.

Yeah I don't think Sky show much basketball (at least until this new deal comes into effect), so obviously it isn't going to get great viewing figures if it isn't on. But at the same time, Sky are a commercial business and if they thought it had the potential to achieve better viewing figures than the likes of darts, tennis, cricket, rugby and golf, they would have made strong efforts in previous years to ensure it was already on.

 

[andmark]

Yeah I don't think Sky show much basketball (at least until this new deal comes into effect), so obviously it isn't going to get great viewing figures if it isn't on. But at the same time, Sky are a commercial business and if they thought it had the potential to achieve better viewing figures than the likes of darts, tennis, cricket, rugby and golf, they would have ensured it was already on.

Yeah, I'd assume so.

 

[sledger]

On what basis is basketball easily the second most popular sport in the UK? According to Sport England, Basketball is the 8th most played sport in the UK (cricket is 4th), and according to Sky, Basketball isn't among the top 10 most viewed sports on Sky Sports (cricket is 4th).

Most played =/= most popular

 

[sledger]

Yeah I don't think Sky show much basketball (at least until this new deal comes into effect), so obviously it isn't going to get great viewing figures if it isn't on. But at the same time, Sky are a commercial business and if they thought it had the potential to achieve better viewing figures than the likes of darts, tennis, cricket, rugby and golf, they would have made strong efforts in previous years to ensure it was already on.

Yes, if almost like they've realised this might be the case and are now taking a course of action to pursue it

 

[cpr]

Sky's current MO seems to be picking up American sports as they are pretty under-represented on British TV, and do have that potential demand there. Its also really cheap TV to broadcast as they can just piggyback on the American coverage regarding commentators and the like, and just stick a couple of talking heads in the studio. NFL has worked pretty well for them in that regard(remember the days when all you could get were late night highlights on C5?), and there's a fair chunk of UK viewers who understand basketball, and will follow it if its on TV enough for them to get a grip with what's going on on a weekly basis. There's already a sizeable appreciation for the sport over here, even if we can't get mainstream coverage to watch. Surprised they haven't snapped up some NHL action, there's a pretty impressive cult following for the game over here. MLB's probably more difficult because it's so ****ing long, though that hasn't held the NFL coverage back.

Given that having the football means fans will still buy their package regardless, its a sensible plan to go for cheaper uncovered sports that can just be parachuted in rather than getting done over in huge bidding wars with BT - they'd probably hoped they'd have seen them off by now, but the fact they are here to stay means they've had to change their strategy considerably. Either way, viewing figures aren't that much of a thing for Sky, as long as footballs there to get the subscriptions. Having something different that drags non-football fans in is a bonus, and having a nice selection of American Sports is ideal for that given that many of their fans are very Americanised in their sporting tastes.

 

[Flem274*]

yeah i think cricket suffers more from some boards overvaluing their product rather than channels not wanting to show it. down here south africa are notorious for charging ridiculous money for games that will be on during the middle of the night.

will be interesting to see how australian cricket sells with the new broadcasters. channel 9 had their faults but they were pretty good at asking for the right price from buyers.

 

[vic_orthdox]

SKY sports have just agreed a deal to show the NBA for the next 4 years and will show 170 games THIS SEASON!! https://www.freesupertips.co.uk/news/sky-sports-nba-agree-4-year-broadcasting-deal/

How can they waste so much time and money on a bloody American sport, surely the demand isn't that high. They always seem to be showing tennis and golf non stop too.


Thank god BT are showing Australia's LO series with SA and India, even though the comms and presentation aren't great.

Get the feeling that the NBA are more progressive in getting their product out there in outposts, even just how liberal they are with social media, people cutting up clips from telecasts etc. to help promote the game.

The issue with cricket is that you're negotiating TV rights with separate boards all the time, and the smaller ones need the most dosh, not worried about how widely broadcast it is.

 

[sledger]

Attracting people who aren't already fans to cricket is not easy.

Basically we're at a point now where all the traditional criticisms about the sport re: its general accessibility have been ramped up to 100. There are just so many barriers to entry relative to other games (i.e. those that can be played all year round and do not require facilities/equipment, or can be played with fewer than a dozen people).

This has obviously been the case for ages, but with all the exposure other sports get these days, many of which are more prima facie dynamic, cool, fast-paced, athetic, and generally glamorous than cricket, it's a tough sell.

The starting point is probably acknowledging that cricket is behind almost everything else in the pecking order though. The false belief of some that cricket is basically god's gift to sport and that it is somehow de facto superior to other sports (that have much broader mainstream appeal and are far more lucrative) that for some inexplicable reason get better TV deals will not help it get anywhere.

 

[andmark]

Sky's current MO seems to be picking up American sports as they are pretty under-represented on British TV, and do have that potential demand there. Its also really cheap TV to broadcast as they can just piggyback on the American coverage regarding commentators and the like, and just stick a couple of talking heads in the studio. NFL has worked pretty well for them in that regard(remember the days when all you could get were late night highlights on C5?), and there's a fair chunk of UK viewers who understand basketball, and will follow it if its on TV enough for them to get a grip with what's going on on a weekly basis. There's already a sizeable appreciation for the sport over here, even if we can't get mainstream coverage to watch. Surprised they haven't snapped up some NHL action, there's a pretty impressive cult following for the game over here. MLB's probably more difficult because it's so ****ing long, though that hasn't held the NFL coverage back.

Given that having the football means fans will still buy their package regardless, its a sensible plan to go for cheaper uncovered sports that can just be parachuted in rather than getting done over in huge bidding wars with BT - they'd probably hoped they'd have seen them off by now, but the fact they are here to stay means they've had to change their strategy considerably. Either way, viewing figures aren't that much of a thing for Sky, as long as footballs there to get the subscriptions. Having something different that drags non-football fans in is a bonus, and having a nice selection of American Sports is ideal for that given that many of their fans are very Americanised in their sporting tastes.

The ice hockey stuff is quite impressive. I believe FreeSport shows the NHL, but also shows European ice hockey. It's actually quite impressive, both as a sport and the European support it gets.

 

[marc71178]

Premier sports (who own Freesports) have the NHL rights. I’ve just signed up to them but only because they took the Pro 14 rights off Sky this season. We do at least get every game shown now but as they only have the one HD channel at the moment it does mean watching stuff in SD at times which is a bit **** (and as the channel is Irish-owned you can guess which teams games get preference on the HD).

 

[Stace]

Haha you're ****ing kidding right

Just for the record I've not replied as I'm waiting for the October/November BARB viewing figures to be released. As you clearly seem to think the opposite of me and that the demand is massively high, I expect to see a few NBA matches in the top 30 list.

 

[cpr]

I think you're missing what Sky will be looking at. They don't need NBA to be one of its biggest viewings, they need it to bring in different subscribers. American sports, amongst British viewers anyway, diverge quite a lot from traditional british sports viewing. If you speak to people who are big into their NBA, NFL or NHL, you'll find them quite disparaging over football and the like, and more likely to watch another one of the big 3 US sports as their alternative viewing. For Sky, they've already saturated the UK sport viewing market (if you've not already signed up for them, then theres little extra cricket or the like thats going to do it), so to increase profits they need to cater for this other market. Of the sports they don't already have, NBA offers the best ratio of new subscribers:outlay.

So even if the best NBA show is only the 90th most watched of the month, with 5% of what the football brings in, if they are new customers, then its a win for them. Don't check BARB, check their subscription numbers.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Sky have got all the rights for the Scottish Prem, no more on BT Sport. Not sure when that starts but they have it.

Will be interesting to see what they do when they take over ATR in January and whether they try to get some of the big tracks off Racing UK. Racing UK have taken the Irish rights as of January which is a real pain in the arse.

 

[Stace]

I think you're missing what Sky will be looking at. They don't need NBA to be one of its biggest viewings, they need it to bring in different subscribers. American sports, amongst British viewers anyway, diverge quite a lot from traditional british sports viewing. If you speak to people who are big into their NBA, NFL or NHL, you'll find them quite disparaging over football and the like, and more likely to watch another one of the big 3 US sports as their alternative viewing. For Sky, they've already saturated the UK sport viewing market (if you've not already signed up for them, then theres little extra cricket or the like thats going to do it), so to increase profits they need to cater for this other market. Of the sports they don't already have, NBA offers the best ratio of new subscribers:outlay.

So even if the best NBA show is only the 90th most watched of the month, with 5% of what the football brings in, if they are new customers, then its a win for them. Don't check BARB, check their subscription numbers.

The poster is assuming that the demand is already there, you're making a completely different point. Another poster said " Easily the second most popular sport going" so I will be pulling him up on that too.

 

[cpr]

Time will tell how high the demand is, but I dare say it's one of the highest, if the not the highest, for a sport thats available to buy for your channel. Think Sledgers fair calling you out for saying 'demand isn't that high', as most of the signs are that Basketball information and coverage is eagerly sorted after by the younger generations (****, I'm no longer in that band...), and the coverage is woeful. Even for a codger like I who has absolutely no interest in basketball (find it the dullest of sports), I struggle to avoid hearing about what record Lebron James has broke this week. Either way I don't think Sledger was saying the demands already there, just scoffing at your notion that the demands not there for them to spend time/money on it (especially when the timings mean they don't really clash with any UK based sports - most SS channels are filled with cheap 'greatest hits' packages after midnight)
Think DCYE is overregging it a bit, from a UK standpoint its not as big as that, but then he's talking from an international position - but then he's the kind of person I was thinking about, someone with a keen eye for US sports who'd be keen for this added and would know a ton of people who were too.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

The poster is assuming that the demand is already there, you're making a completely different point. Another poster said " Easily the second most popular sport going" so I will be pulling him up on that too.

I was talking about worldwide, not just localised to the UK. The NBA has had a massive boom in popularity since the early 2010's.