End of Eurosport in the UK... Milking fans of minor sports?

Leebobs

I'm an avid cycling fan and love watching the various races throughout the year.  A few years ago this was through a subscription to GCN+ for around £70 a year.

GCN+ was then discontinued by Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD)and the only option was to subscribe to the Discovery+ Standard Package.  Originally they offered an annual plan but discontinued this last May.

This moved everyone to a £6.99 package and ended the 12 months for the price of 10 saving.

Today I received an e-mail and the changes are also detailed in the Guardian.

That in the UK only, Eurosport will be "folded into TNT sport".  My only option to continue to watch the cycling is to "upgrade" to the Discovery+ Premium package costing £30.99 a month. A £24 a month premium so I can not watch UFC, Boxing, Rugby and the odd football game.

Will this come into effect next year?  No in one months time... just as the season kicks off with the classics.

As a cycling fan, I am massively disappointed.  I have no interest in paying a massive premium to have access to a load of content which I won't watch.

TNT sport are reported as saying:

“Combining Eurosport and TNT Sports content in the UK and Ireland will enable us to offer a single, premium viewing experience for sports fans,” said Scott Young, senior vice-president at WBD Sports Europe. “We know audiences are looking for a slightly simpler journey on where to find the sport they love. This move will also continue to best deliver value for our leagues and federation partners, as we continue our 35 years plus commitment to investment and championing of sport on our screens.”

I just think this is a calculated fleecing of fans of minority sports.  They can afford to have 75% of current subscribers cancel and still increase their revenue.

#ReallyDisappointedFan

PZ19

It’s things like this that make people use, let’s say alternative means, to watch their sports.  Behind the marketing speak “single, premium viewing experience” there, they mean to make themselves more money..

winsoc

Fellow cycling fan here. I'm also gutted. The beginnings of this stem from when BT and Warner Bros. entered into a joint venture a few years ago. That joint venture was assessed by our competition authorities (the Competition and Markets Authority) who judged it OK. The CMA is meant to protect consumers from harm due to anti-competitive practices including conglomerate effects which can give a provider unfair pricing power. In this case, you've got Eurosport with some exclusive rights available via low-cost subscriptions, and you now combine it with a premium subscription for other content so the only possible way to access that exclusive content is by paying for other premium content you don't want. That feels to me like the exact situation the CMA should be protecting us from. You can ask them to investigate situations like this - I was going to post a link but apparently I haven't been around long enough. Just search "report a competition or market problem to the CMA" and you'll find it.

mjm3346

Cycling should be properly charged for and including it in a sports package is the way to go (even if it will be another year to get everything included/removed from FTA)

bx16v

mjm3346 said:

Cycling should be properly charged for and including it in a sports package is the way to go (even if it will be another year to get everything included/removed from FTA)

And why is that, why was it not being charged for correctly at £40 a year when cycling (On GCN) was all you could watch, or £6.99 a month when bundled in with all the other Discovery stuff?

I really do not think this is the way to go, unless they are looking to reduce viewing figures massively.
The vast majority of cycling fans who are really into the sport, and not only watch the grand tours, but also the one day races, maybe cyclo cross in the winter, are not overly interested in other sports, with the strong likelihood that if they are, it is not something that TNT have access to anyway.

I'm a member of a forum, and swathes of us have cancelled, £372 is simply not worth it, so we have to go back to the dark ages of just seeing very brief highlights.

They are being very greedy, and I can't see how their viewing figures are going to increase - if their viewing figures plummet, then advertising revenue will also decrease, I genuinely believed they have made a major blunder here.

Our only hope is that viewing figures for cycling through TNT hit the floor, and in a couple of years they decide it's better to sell it off to someone who can market it at the right kind of price, £31 is not it.

Even with the Discovery package I never watched any other program they had to offer, the same would be the case for TNT.

Leebobs

mjm3346 said:

Cycling should be properly charged for and including it in a sports package is the way to go (even if it will be another year to get everything included/removed from FTA)

As Tao Geoghegan Hart (British pro rider and Giro winner) said yesterday:

“To be clear on something that many don’t understand, teams receive zero remuneration from TV rights. What do I want to say? For amateur riders, cycling has become a very expensive sport or passion. Now as a GB fan, following the upper echelons of the sport has also suddenly and massively increased in cost. I think it is now very relevant to realize where this money is going and where it is not. And perhaps to question the monopoly held over the sports UK coverage.”

Krakkkers

Cancelled my Discovery subscription today, only want WSB and cycling and not prepared to pay £372 a year for that.
Was pay £39 for the whole year recently.
Will look for alternative ways of watching.

mjm3346

Sports supporters (subscribers) in general will save money as they will not need a separate subscription to watch cycling. 

cyclepathic

That may be true for some, but like some people that have already commented, I'm almost exclusively interested in cycling (road and track). No interest in football, rugby, motor sports, racquet sports etc. So an increase from £6.99 per month to £31 per month is a huge hike in price and I'm moved to investigate all the alternatives before paying it (I've already cancelled Discovery+). 
I agree with the comment that WBS have calculated that they will make more money because the x5 increase in price will more than compensate for the large drop in cycling-focused subscribers, so I don't think it's a blunder, just a rational, but offensive business decision which I don't intend to reward.

IanGood

It's not just cycling fans that are unhappy. Snooker, World Superbike, Endurance racing and many other less popular sports are suffering the same. If Warner Bros think all the people who were paying £6.99 will start paying £30.99 I think they have miscalculated badly. My principle interest on Eurosport was World and British Superbike. I already pay for a Video Pass for MotoGP and can get one for 70 Euros for World Superbike so will probably do that as it's just more than 2 months of TNT. 

Also TNT have four channels and there are going to be times when there are more than four major events on at the same time so how will they work that? You can bet your life the minority sports will get pushed aside first, so even if you pay their crazy price there is no guarantee your sport will be shown live, or at all. 

Doubly annoying that it is only happening here and the rest of Europe keep Eurosport.  

Krakkkers

Am investigating a European Eurosport subscription using my VPN.