College football

[w0036471]

This and the Aussie Rules are the only two sports I need TNT to be able to follow, so after the Grand Final then I'll be reducing my package for sure.

[zulu17]

If i understand it correctly TNT Sports do the broadcasting but the rights are held by the joint venture company which has BT and WBD appointed leadership. I did ask in another thread that has yet to have BT input as to the role BT plays in determining rights.

Communication to customers and to customer service people in both Bt and WBDseems to have inadequate here.

[DarrenDev]

Even when everything was owned by BT @zulu17 the decisions about content and rights were way above our heads, and we didn't know anything about it until the same time as the public. That hasn't changed.

[zulu17]

I suspect that now the rights decisions are made by  different people with wider European.  responsibilities rather than a UK focused role, 

Potentially what appears to be a focus on fewer sports May result in higher viewing figures for broadcast content but possibly lose existing subscribers  for whom the dropped content is a significant deciding reason for subscribing.

[noopjay]

There's signficant rumours of Apple buying ESPN outright. 

I think we'll be streaming college football on Apple from next season. This coming season might be lost for us - although I'd like to think there's some significance in the ESPN Player for UK/Europe being officially shut yesterday. 

PS...go onto Apple USA and there is actually some college football content on there.  

[noopjay]

Latest is that Amazon is in talks with ESPN....

https://twitter.com/theinformation/status/1694837704607822331?s=20

https://twitter.com/LastCallCNBC/status/1695225798981034247?s=20

[skywriting]

The state of both NFL and CFB in the UK has hit an all-time low with DAZN and TNT.

I'll be honest: I've done what I should have done years ago and gone down the VPN + IPTV route. Let's just assume, for argument's sake, the provider holds the appropriate licensing. I now have all the major networks (Fox, CBS, etc), the regional networks of each of those, the specialist networks (NFL, ESPN etc), and the divisional networks (SEC, ACC, Big10, etc).

[DonalGallagher]

I think viewers of college football should consider an alternative to TNT and Sky: and there are other options out there. I'm cancelling my account this week because the cost does not vindicate the content provided. Apart from MLB, UFC and the odd premiership game, TNT is showing nothing I would watch. The champions league is almost unwatchable until at least the quarter-final stage; one channel seems to be dedicated to WWF; poker and fishing are always on some of the channels, which no offense to anyone who's into those, but it isn't for me.  If there are football fans that are willing to put up with the champions league early group stages and the other football TNT show, fair enough, keep the subscription; but other college football fans like myself, should all consider cancelling TNT and moving on to something else. 

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[Harold5hunter]

I'm not aware of any (legal) options and I prefer to avoid anything illegal.

[DonalGallagher]

Ya I understand, and would prefer to watch college football legally myself, and I think you can with the firestick - I'm not 100 percent sure though. But I'm willing to explore other illegal routes if I have to, because I think it's so unfair as a college football fan in Ireland (or anywhere in Europe ) to have to put with not being able to watch any of it.