Sky Sports and the golf quandary

So those of use who first subscribed to Sky for the sport - and
especially the golf - now have to fork out an extra £15/month to
Sentanta to see the US PGA tour events which Sky have been carrying
since day 1. The only must-see golf that Sky have hung on to is the
Ryder Cup. And the fact that they allowed Sentanta to outbid them for
the US PGA events can only mean that not enough of Sky's subscribers
nowadays are bothered about golf - notwithstanding the Tiger Woods
effect.

I can understand Sky making a commercial decision to drop the PGA tour
events but keeping the Ryder Cup is a sneaky move since it makes it
really difficult for the true golf fans to simply ditch Sky Sports in
favour of Sentanta's Golf Channel.

Sure, it's a free market - but in this case it isn't operating in the
consumer's best interest. I guess I'll have to stick to my principles
and settle for Ryder Cup highlights on BBC TV so that I can ditch Sky
Sports but I wish Sky hadn't forced me to make a decision.

Stan

In article ,
Stan The Man wrote:

Sure, it's a free market - but in this case it isn't operating in the
consumer's best interest. I guess I'll have to stick to my principles
and settle for Ryder Cup highlights on BBC TV so that I can ditch Sky
Sports but I wish Sky hadn't forced me to make a decision.

Why not just subscribe to Sky Sports for 1 month every other year?

On Sat, 13 Jan 2007 20:44:00 +0000, Stan The Man
wrote:

So those of use who first subscribed to Sky for the sport - and
especially the golf - now have to fork out an extra £15/month to
Sentanta to see the US PGA tour events which Sky have been carrying
since day 1.

Same thing with the Premiership, of course..
--

In article , says...
So those of use who first subscribed to Sky for the sport - and
especially the golf - now have to fork out an extra £15/month to
Sentanta to see the US PGA tour events which Sky have been carrying
since day 1. The only must-see golf that Sky have hung on to is the
Ryder Cup.


What about the US Open and US PGA championships they still have, plus
the 4 world championship events?

In article , Richardr
wrote:

In article , says...
So those of use who first subscribed to Sky for the sport - and
especially the golf - now have to fork out an extra £15/month to
Sentanta to see the US PGA tour events which Sky have been carrying
since day 1. The only must-see golf that Sky have hung on to is the
Ryder Cup.


What about the US Open and US PGA championships they still have, plus
the 4 world championship events?

I do want to see them - but the Ryder Cup is the one I would kill for.
The fact that they have a handful of other events worth watching just
makes it worse. It's akin to a soap addict subscribing to a dedicated
all-soaps channel only to discover after a time that Coronation Street
has been split out to a separate subscription channel.

Anyhow, unlike the majority I guess, I don't care about the footy so I
will probably be voting with my feet rather than pay a £180 surcharge
to get the same service I had last year. And I will now be delaying
indefintely my planned investment in HD.

Stan

Stan The Man wrote:
In article , Richardr
wrote:

In article , says...
So those of use who first subscribed to Sky for the sport - and
especially the golf - now have to fork out an extra £15/month to
Sentanta to see the US PGA tour events which Sky have been carrying
since day 1. The only must-see golf that Sky have hung on to is the
Ryder Cup.


What about the US Open and US PGA championships they still have, plus
the 4 world championship events?

I do want to see them - but the Ryder Cup is the one I would kill for.
The fact that they have a handful of other events worth watching just
makes it worse. It's akin to a soap addict subscribing to a dedicated
all-soaps channel only to discover after a time that Coronation Street
has been split out to a separate subscription channel.

Anyhow, unlike the majority I guess, I don't care about the footy so I
will probably be voting with my feet rather than pay a £180 surcharge
to get the same service I had last year. And I will now be delaying
indefintely my planned investment in HD.

Stan

As the first reply stated, you can cancel Sky and just sub back in
September 2008 for a month. It really is as easy as that.

In article , Zero Tolerance
writes
On Sat, 13 Jan 2007 20:44:00 +0000, Stan The Man
wrote:

So those of use who first subscribed to Sky for the sport - and
especially the golf - now have to fork out an extra £15/month to
Sentanta to see the US PGA tour events which Sky have been carrying
since day 1.

Same thing with the Premiership, of course..

Wasn't it the EU that decided it would be much better/fairer for
consumers to force the Premier League to split the packages?

In fact it's made it worse, having to pay out more money for the same
amount of footie that we'd been enjoying for years.

Personally, I'll stick to what I get with Sky, I won't be paying a
second sub to get the matches that Setanta show. If I'm desperate to see
a match, I'll just go to the pub and watch it.

It's like going back to the bad old days when you needed Sky for the
Premiership and On-Digital for Champions League.

--
Sean Black

On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 15:19:05 +0000, Sean Black
wrote:

Wasn't it the EU that decided it would be much better/fairer for
consumers to force the Premier League to split the packages?

In fact it's made it worse, having to pay out more money for the same
amount of footie that we'd been enjoying for years.

Indeed. But what's most important is that Sky's monopoly has been
broken. Even if it costs everyone more. Apparently.

--

In message , Zero Tolerance
writes
On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 15:19:05 +0000, Sean Black
wrote:

Wasn't it the EU that decided it would be much better/fairer for
consumers to force the Premier League to split the packages?

In fact it's made it worse, having to pay out more money for the same
amount of footie that we'd been enjoying for years.

Indeed. But what's most important is that Sky's monopoly has been
broken. Even if it costs everyone more. Apparently.

Pats on the back all round at the EU then ;-)

Likely end result, Sky lose a handful of viewers, because they lost one
or two of the available packages, Setanta spend loads of money to get
the rights to games that nobody is really bothered about anyway and will
probably end up losing money themselves :-)
--
Sean Black

"Sean Black" wrote in message
...
In message , Zero Tolerance
writes
On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 15:19:05 +0000, Sean Black
wrote:

Wasn't it the EU that decided it would be much better/fairer for
consumers to force the Premier League to split the packages?

In fact it's made it worse, having to pay out more money for the same
amount of footie that we'd been enjoying for years.

Indeed. But what's most important is that Sky's monopoly has been
broken. Even if it costs everyone more. Apparently.

Pats on the back all round at the EU then ;-)

Likely end result, Sky lose a handful of viewers, because they lost one or
two of the available packages, Setanta spend loads of money to get the
rights to games that nobody is really bothered about anyway and will
probably end up losing money themselves :-)

and you forgot ..
the customer is worse off. Thanks EU.

--
Tumbleweed

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