25 July 2014

Sky Sports

At last I've done the deed.  I thought about it and blogged about it last year.  The final straw was another price rise and reduction in useful service, which has at last pushed me over the brink to cancel Sky Sports. 

Sky used to be the place to watch Aviva Premiership matches, and cycling through Eurosport.  The rot started when they started failing to provide proper coverage (semi finals on ESPN, for example).   Then they moved Eurosport out of the Sports packages into an Entertainment package, best described as a pile of infantile rubbish costing extra £5 a month.  Eurosport is sport, isn't it?  And then they lost the rights to show Aviva Premiership Rugby to BT, and put the price up at the same time, presumably to provide even more funding for football players to keep their WAGs in the accustomed style. 

In the 2013-14 season, the BT coverage started a little shakily but has gone from strength  to strength.  They have a great team of presenters, a fun format, and can bring a smile to your face in the midweek programme, unlike the tired old Sky show that we used to endure.  Sky Sports is characterised by people sitting around in suits, BT by people enjoying themselves.

Any Sky Rugby coverage that I need to watch is shown at our local pub or at Grayshott Social Club.  £20 a month or thereabouts is a high price to pay for the occasional Championship, Super Rugby or tour match.  What about other sports?  The BBC's  Formula One coverage isn't as good as Sky's, but it's acceptable.  Frankly Sky F1 is overblown, too many hours of blather; the noise to signal ratio is too high.  I rarely watch it live, and delete most of it without watching the recording.   Cricket isn't worth watching at the moment; Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 LW is enough pain.  And I've said enough about wendyball already.  Better without it.