So as BT is to become EE... will BT Sport become EE Sport? Will I get Kevin Bacon on my TV screen?

[biohazardx9]

Joking aside, would BT sport become EE sport?

you would assume so but given the branding I guess not but perhaps given the merger is happening, would you see a totally new name? 

Interesting.

[Anonymous]

I see a totally new name being introduced within 12 months, I see WBD exercising their right to purchase the JV in full within 2 years of the deal finalising and BT Group will have successfully exited the Sports rights market (their original plan), so they can focus on broadband and tech.

EE will become the consumer focused brand and have access to the sports content as part of the deal agreed, but that's it. 

I just hope those that have worked hard on BT Sport over the years (behind the scenes, especially the app rather than "on air talent"), are retained and looked after as part of the deal.

[biohazardx9]

Agreed,

I hope it retains what it has.

The deal hopefully should be done sooner rather than later. Certain eurosport content at the moment is only accessible via another seperate subscription to discovery plus. Which I have no way of accessing unless I go buy a streaming device. 

Still looks promising..

[Anonymous]

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@biohazardx9wrote:

I hope it retains what it has.

The deal hopefully should be done sooner rather than later. Certain eurosport content at the moment is only accessible via another seperate subscription to discovery plus. Which I have no way of accessing unless I go buy a streaming device. 

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So we know BT TV users will get access to Discovery+ (or whatever it changes it's name to eventually), and we also know that as part of the BT/WBD deal that long term access to the content is included, although the pricing won't be clear for a while.

They have also agreed a longer term deal with Sky, so the content available through the NOW tie up is also secured for quite a while. 

Now BT can now get on with moving customers into the EE brand and continue to offer a TV package which has access to the main content people are after in one place (Disney+ and Apple TV+ still TBA but accessible via other means if needed), but without having to invest in the programming itself, which is where it needed to be really. 

BT needs to spend it's money on Openreach building out the full fibre network, it's spent too long dallying and trying to focus on different things (such as sports), and now it has to catch up.

Most of my surrounding area (although not my road sadly), already has alt-nets putting in full fibre, yet Openreach are not currently planning to do anything here in the next 5 years. 

[biohazardx9]

I agree with you, same in Southampton.

Most of my surrounding area (although not my road sadly), already has alt-nets putting in full fibre, yet Openreach are not currently planning to do anything here in the next 5 years. 

Here, central Southampton, and parts east across the river upto the M27 border are not served by openreach with no plans to do so as Toob has got there first and pretty much enabled the whole city.

I am just on the other side of the M27 in Hedge End, and as Toob isn't here, Openreach has marked the area for install within the next three years although I suspect within a year because a small pocket in the road up from myself is already on full fibre.

Disney+ however seems to be a big mystery, it seemingly is only on sky yet if you ask Virgin or BT about they have no idea. I wonder if Disney are being difficult about it? or is it because of the platforms involved? - I know youview boxes use Linux and the core video streaming engine uses gstreamer, which if I'm not mistaken is similar to a roku box which has Disney+. Same can be said for Apple TV, and in their case I think there is seemingly no rush either. 

Problem for me is all these services popping up and having to take yet another subscription is slowly pushing the price into silly territory. I mean it's £16 just for Disney plus and amazon tv if you factor in Discovery+ and then apple TV+ and then Paramount+ it gets expensive. Bt's deal with netflix helps but if that were standalone i think you'd be looking at over £50 just for them alone.  

[Anonymous]

At least with streaming services you can dip in and out and various deals are available, such as Netflix standard included with BT and Sky, Prime Video included with the shipping service, Disney+ bundled in with some mobile contracts etc.

With the fragmentation and other increased living costs I suspect many people will stick with a core TV service (which may just be Freeview or Freesat), and then dip in and out of additional subscriptions as and when, which is essentially how BT TV, Virgin Media Stream and Sky Glass are positioned.

Get access to the basics with a few extras and flex from there.

Toob are working up the road from me, as are Swish. 

[biohazardx9]

can't be far from myself then!

Friend has toob and they do offer a static IP option but if you choose it, then you can't host anything. (everything is blocked) so seems kinda pointless.

I'll wait out for openreach I think.