TOPIC: Sky TV in pubs etc

With the once very popular General Wolfe pub closing at the weekend in Penrith and the owner saying a reason was the charges for sky - what is the criteria etc for this regarding how much it costs?

Was in The Shed at Annan on Saturday and it has loads of different football on and both horse racing channels, costs 5 quid on train and is cheap for drink. Is it more expensive in certain towns etc? Although most of it in Annan seems to be shown not via Sky to be fair. Can't think of anywhere in Carlisle that comes near that place for live sport.

I think they just put it up as far as each place will possibly tolerate. Once they complain and threaten to take it out the prices seem to drop for a while, then they sneak them up again.

Some large amounts get banded about like, be really hard to make them back I would imagine for many places.

A lot round here have actually got rid mate, and it has been because they were being fleeced.

Think it is tied in with what sky perceive the turnover of the pub to be so a busy city centre pub will pay more than one in the middle of no where. Think this has led to a lot getting rid of the sky. Essentially they charge what they like and can get away with

There is actually a method of coming up with the prices based upon rateable value of the property, number of screens, number of projectors etc then a discount applied for multiple venues.

For example we pay treble what the Bishops Blaze based on the doorstep of Old Trafford.

When BT launched it cost the same to put it into 32pubs due to hitting discount criteria as it would to put it into 10pubs.
The likes of the At the Races/racing UK is an add on service & Pubs can have up to 6boxes I think it is installed on one subscription so somewhere like The Shed in Annan is possibly showing a lot all under one subscription, HD, 3d etc comes as standard although due to cabling issues not many pubs actually utilise either of these.
We have 3boxes in place but that's our limit due to the system we use to switch between boxes, on screen graphics etc as well as outputs which go down to the screens.

Sky charge businesses stupid prices. I work at a residential home and they charge us £300 p/m to have it in the lounge, and £40 p/m per room to have it in residents bedrooms. So total is £700p/m. Company I work for as quite a few houses so it soon adds up.

Did notice last season after Summer a few boozers round Munich never had it in and they said it was due to high costs being charged and just getting higher and higher. Greedy Firm like.

I doubt it would happen but I'd like to see Sky go tits up.

Thing is if it did all the Sport etc... wouldn't suddenly be shown on free to air tv would it.

Way of life now live sport on tv, not many could live without it I would have thought.

Still want to know 100% if these boxes that show all sorts for under 60 quid or whatever are legal myself, if they were then surely big chains like Lloyds would be using them as the cost to them for SKY/BT Sport etc is clearly very high.

I don't know mate, it certainly wouldn't bother me that much, but then I don't have Sky, and never have. I also think there's a saturation point for most things, I'm not sure if we've hit it with top flight football in this country yet, but we must be getting close. They may soon be dealing with a backlash when their greed becomes too much for many more pubs. I understand, from my brother, that the home sports packages aren't too expensive yet, but even he's thinking of trimming what he gets. He is the epitome of the armchair fan by the way, so if he's contemplating cutting down then things can't be entirely rosy.

I would be absolutely delighted though if it collapsed and forced the big clubs in this country to live within their means.

Well if more folk got these boxes they probably would go bust eventually!

Just got a minix 8 box, virgin broadband, worked a treat up to know.

Don't blame you, the sums of money I hear that people save with them and seemingly for more channels are huge.

The landlord of my local in Norwich told me a couple of years ago it was £1,200 per month and that's just a fairly small back street boozer.

he ditched it and got some other foreign channel, but then got threatened with prosecution, so doesn't have any football at all now unless it's on terrestrial. It's shame but advertisers don't especially like people watching in pubs and clubs, they prefer people to watch at home as they're more likely to watch their ads at half time and full time

Can't be many folk watch the ads at HT and think "Might go and buy a (Whatever carmaker is sponsoring) tomorrow"?!

I know what you meant Gaston, you don't tend to hear adverts very well either in pubs compared to when watching at home.

I also imagine Publicans keep an eye on rivals over that sort of stuff, if you ran a Boozer without the Football on due to not being able to pay the SKY rates you would be pretty pissed off if the one down the road was showing it when they were breaking the law in doing so.

Wazza wrote:
Sky actually output the adverts at a higher level than the programme/commentary which is a pain in a***

Dont have loads of blokes mind in most living rooms talking pal!

Sky broadcast different adverts in the Pubs feed to those shown in the domestic feed so they can "target" the appropriate audience

Adverts for betting on Football instead of the Great British Bake Off?!

www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/06/la...-betting-allegations

Never knew they did that but not surprised.

Wazza wrote:
Don't get why Ladbrokes would take bets on a pre-recorded event. Just asking to be conned by someone in the know.

DeckchairBlue wrote:
Pathetic really, wouldn't have thought it was legal either in all honesty to offer bets on an event already resulted.

365 got done once, Masters Football was played once at 4pm instead of 7pm, Sky showed it as live like, few folk who knew the sp stung them but they just took it on the chin and paid up. Get sacked now if you back anything classed as moody at most betting firms, 10 year ago you were encouraged to be betting it for the firm at some places.

mattcufc wrote: If they do that, they're breaking the law and/or the terms of their broadcast licenses. Drop a line to the ombusman.

I refuse to give money to that lot so never had it. What i do miss on terrestrial is the Test Match cricket. Not the same watching the highlights for an hour when you know what the score is - and I'd have no chance if I tried to do a 'Bob and Terry' and tried to avoid hearing the score during the day. There would be plenty of the Brian Glover types trying to spoil it for me.

feckwittery wrote: Doesn't bother me that much, just an observation. Half time comes and customers ask volume down during ads then when goes back to programme complain it's too quiet. Just leave it turned up now as less hassle