[Mary Cherry.]

Pensioners package

Urgh, I hate BT

[Cosmic Voices]

Mary, genie in your avi

[Spice]

My source is excellent. They advised the WTA would announce this shortly.

I advised that a lot of fans are not happy with the way this has been handled.

I did not even know about BT Vision!

[Chris 84]

Originally Posted by Mary Cherry.

It's the equivalent of once a week for EPL matches though, pretty much what ESPN have now but instead of just subscribing to an extra channel you'd have to change your TV (+ broadband/phone since most come as a package these days) provider. Is it really worth it?

as far as i'm concerned, of course not.
but i'd expect they wouldn't be throwing that kind of money around unless they thought that they were going to benefit greatly from it. i don't disagree with you that its bad for the wta (though not financially), bad for your average fan and in the long run, the whole venture may be a disaster for bt. but their subscriptions will rise in the short term.

[DokDi]

So judging by the reaction this will be a big fail for WTA in UK too, not only in Scandinavia.
And soon in the rest of Europe as well...

WTA Tennis

[TheBoiledEgg]

so you have to pay subs to BT Vision, Sky as well
whole disaster

[ozza]

Originally Posted by matthias

WTA is soooo stupid
To get Money for the TV right is One Thing, but the Sponsors will Not be happy when just a Minority can watch it
And will People Pay for a Box just to watch womens Tennis? I gues Not

While this is true that yes I doubt many people will pay for a box just for womens tennis. One thing to note is BT Vision have also bought 1 package to the Premier League from next season, I imagine many people will get the box for this. I must admit myself I don't actually know how this BT Vision actually works.

[ozza]

Having looked into what BT Vision is about. It does seem if they are really hoping people to get a new setup, new broadband etc. for 1 of their packages even for the football sounds pretty unlikely. Even less likely for WTA tennis. This does seem a bad idea. Sure it will probably get good full coverage on BT Vision but I would be surprised if even 5% of people will have access to this even after people subscribe for the football. It will take a lot more than the odd football match (the package is not even 1 match a week, and none of the top matches, Sky still have the 5 best and most expensive packages) and the tennis for people en masse to change their setup so drastically for this. Tbh I am surprised BT Vision even expect this to take off at all. ESPN it was just 1 extra channel to ring up and subscribe too. This seems to have a lot more hoops and setup to get.

All this taken into account it does seem a dodgy move at best. Obviously they are getting a lot more money for this, but the exposure (or lack of) I can imagine hurting greatly if it really is going to be this difficult to get BT Vision. There was part of me hoping Sky were going to bid for it to take advantage of a potential peak in interest as a result of Laura's rise up the rankings and get a dedicated tennis channel or something, because Sky tend to do a great job at stirring up interest for all the sports they have.

[Miss Atomic Bomb]

There are big things planned for BT vision. I worked this summer with the company who does their digital marketing/identity and its going to be quite good.

[ozza]

Originally Posted by Bradbury

There are big things planned for BT vision. I worked this summer with the company who does their digital marketing/identity and its going to be quite good.

This might be true. But I just can't see it taking off. If they really wanted to take off they should have gone into a major bidding war for the main Premier League packages. Because only then could I see people moving over en masse.
I sure hope they have an online package of some kind, because it is highly unlikely I will be totally changing my setup for this.

[PetraReeMona]

Originally Posted by Bradbury

There are big things planned for BT vision. I worked this summer with the company who does their digital marketing/identity and its going to be quite good.

Can you give any examples of what "quite good" means please?

[doujyr]

hope they don't do what sky has done with the Fed Cup and Hopman Cup - buy the UK rights then show virtually none of it live, only highlights packages, also means geo-blocking of bookies streams of those events in the UK. that would be a complete disaster!

but it's hard to imagine BT, idiotic and boneheaded as they've proven to be like any large multinational, coughing up a lot of money for something then only being able to show it to a small audience.

[pesto]

It doesn't matter to me how 'quite good' it is, if I can't get it, even if I'm prepared to pay. Most channels are available through different service providers, so that you could get Sky Sports by cable, satellite or BT Vision, depending on what packages suit you, and what's available in your area.

To have WTA on a channel that is confined to a single, minority service provider, that doesn't have full geographical coverage, is just madness.

The timing for Brits, as has been pointed out, is shit, with Laura and Heather breaking through.

[Spice]

Can you not get BT Vision through Sky or Virgin?

[PetraReeMona]

Originally Posted by Spice

Can you not get BT Vision through Sky or Virgin?

Of course not. It's a completely different system.