…..even that must be in danger of not going ahead
TV said last night that club rugby (except nippers grade) been cancelled until late April
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"The majority of their subscribers currently subscribe to Sky for their entertainment offerings."
I am imagining you mean entertainment excluding sport with this statement.
Really ? Even with the plethora of other options at much cheaper rates ? Sky is about the last thing I consider for entertainment. Without Sport....I would not even consider SKY.
I added the Sailing link as an example of how an individual sport can control their own destiny. This may become the future for sport. Or some variation of.
During this dearth of Live Sport on our TV's, people will find other options to amuse them. For some, the changes found might well be permanent.
Of course I am just one punter.
Yes the vast majority have Sky for solely entertainment (no sport) or Entertainment + Sport. I remember John Fellet pointed this out 2 or 3 years back, and it is reflected in the satellite ARPU being $83/month. Someone just taking Starter + Sport pays about $56/month. If they take MySky then it is about $70.
If the majority of subs just signed up for Sport... with a minority who just signed up for Starter + Entertainment + Movies (SOHO is generally tacked on for free) that would be approx $70/month with a basic decoder and $85 with MySky.
Drop the Entertainment component and it becomes $45/month basic decoder and $60/month MySky.
So one would expect ARPU to be much lower if your suspicion was correct that the vast majority of people sign up to Sky to only get the sports channels...
What is very clear to me is that this business is all about relationships. No broadcaster has the same level of great relationships that Sky currently has with its partners - both sport and general entertainment.
Sky have a massive opportunity to prove their worth to the Sporting codes while they are really hurting - to show them that they have a symbiotic relationship. Sky does not do well when they hurt - and they do not do as well when Sky hurts.
For what it's worth, my prediction is that once we get out the other side of this difficult time, these relationships will be even stronger than ever.
Perhaps, but meanwhile, how many of those subscribing for sports will be happy paying for repeats and, possibly, games played in empty stadiums?Quote:
For what it's worth, my prediction is that once we get out the other side of this difficult time, these relationships will be even stronger than ever.
Personally, I subscribe for live sports and the BBC World news. Without the former I'll be saving my money, at least until things get back to resembling something like "normal".
Yeah fair point. For me, I would rather watch the local derbie matches in empty stadiums as opposed to having no rugby at all. It is far from ideal - but this situation we are in is not ideal.
Depending on how many sports are cancelled, and how long Sky has a reduced offering - I imagine there will be a reasonably number of subs who want to either cancel altogether or put the sport component of their package on hold.
Sky may need to look at what sweeteners they can offer to keep their sports fans relatively happy.
I certainly don't have all the answers - and the Sky team are much smarter than I am. All I do know is that, from what I can see, a number of people are jumping to worst-case scenarios.
In my experience, that is pretty typical when it comes to Sky though! Ha!
Just picking up on a particular part of your comment...
Just to be clear - when a broadcaster refers to their live sports offering...it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not there are any spectators in the stands. Live sport just means that the match is being played in real time.
Appreciate the viewing experience is not as good for the fan at home when the stands are empty...but spectator attendance is a separate issue.
At this moment in time, Sky are set to still have a number of live sports on offer. The punters will have to decide whether it is enough to keep them engaged.
Of course, if a large number of people do decide to pull the plug on the sport offering...the downstream affect is that they will be directly taking money away from the very sports they, presumably, want to support and see more of in the long-term. This probably wouldn't even occur to the average man on the street - but if Sky are forced to start exercising their contractual rights in terms of rebates etc...it will be devastating for NZ sport.
So if you are a sports fan - I would be hoping that it all works out well for all parties, and that Sky does not see a big drop in subs because of coronavirus. Rooting for this to be the final nail in the coffin would achieve somewhat of a pyrrhic victory for the Sky haters in my view.
For me currently I have a $98 a month sub. But I really only have SKY for sport. I cannot be bothered getting rid of the other stuff, and sometimes i do watch CNBC, the Mrs likes the MYSky ability to record channel 1, 3 etc and I do also like Fox and CNN. So I reluctantly pay the $25 extra. But if there is no live sport that I want to watch on the offering, I am going to cancel the whole lot. SKY better come up with a sweetner, and all Movie channels would be a bare minimum or else its bye bye sub. You have 1 week SKY. This email I got about having past sporting events that I could watch and a lot of archive footage blah blah blah and its a difficult time at present... IS just not good enough.
To be fair mate, and with nothing but kindness in my heart...it is ridiculous (in my very humble opinion!) that you are paying damn near a hundy a month when the only content you really care for is Sport. Your other half doesn't need MySky for TV1 and 3 as there are apps for both where you can watch On Demand.
From a pure profit maximisation perspective I thank you for kicking so much money in the tin each month. But dude, you could get a NEON/Sky Sport combo for $53.94 per month (damn near half what you are paying). You get a great Sport streaming app with the sport you like (outside of coronavirus times) as well as access to HBO, Showtime, FX, Rialto which I am sure your lady would enjoy.
I can't see why you haven't just done that anyway if you truly value the rest of the content you only occasionally watch (CNBC etc) so little.
I have the old FANPASS pricing for my Sky Sport NOW sub ($38.95 per month). No doubt that helps me be a bit more philosophical than you about Sky's partners being forced to reduce their offerings in the short-medium term!
Sky need to follow spark and make sport free for a while.
If they do not people are going to cancel, and will probably not come back.