Not necessarily. The point being your payments have funded the purchase of the rights. It's irrelevant whether or not that was intentional.
Ultimately it's a good deal. One I'll take up as soon as I move house! But is it free? Of course not. You're paying BT for two things rather than one. But you're still paying them. To call it free is nonsensical and naive.
But surely BT's existing customers were perfectly happy with just the phone and broadband. They paid BT for that, and now, without paying anything extra, are getting the football. From their point of view, I would say that's free.
I think we're probably looking at this from different perspectives though
Let's say ten people pay me a pound each for broadband, but broadband costs me 50p to provide. So I then spend 9.50 on the football rights and then give the games on tv to the ten people. Did they get football for free?
I think the problem is we're using "free" in the sense of "without paying any extra money over" while you're using it in the "without paying ANY money over at all". Trouble is if we're limited to the latter, how do we describe "buy one get one free", "20% extra free" or "free postage" offers?
I am not a lawyer but as far as your example goes, I'd say it depends. Are you charging other people 10p to watch the games even if they don't pay you for broadband? If so, your football offer is a distinct product with its own value, and the broadband subscribers are getting it for free. If the football isn't a distinct product, then it's inclusive to the broadband package rather than being free.
In the case of BT Sport, it's a distinct product that you have to pay for if you don't have BT Broadband, but it's free if you do. Sky On Demand and Sky Go aren't available unless you have a Sky subscription, right? So they aren't free to Sky subscribers, they are just included in the subscription. I think they CAN call the Sky boxes free though, as you can buy a second one without having to sign up for a second subscription.
It's free if you have BT Broadband. Simple. Sky are hurting over BT Sport and about time. For those paying through the nose (like me), now is the time to get your bill reduced.
1) Call Sky on 08442 411653 2) Tell them you can't afford their recent price increase and want to know what you can remove from your package or say you want BT Sport so are looking to remove stuff to fund it. 3) If you are an established Sky customer they will tell you that they have a number of offers to save you money and you will get significant savings on particular offerings for three or six months and will probably be advised, like I was, to call back at a certain date for more savings. 4) I saved enough to have got BT Sport for free but am a BT broadband customer anyway. Fill your boots. Competition is good and Sky finally have some.
Agree with cardinal sin, done similar to him got £27 a month off for 6 months and then a further £13.50 off for another year. I asked why they didn't automatically offer this to loyal customers like me (was one of the very first to sign up for digital), funny enough they ignored the question, but it was after this that I got the additional year discount, you got to give it a go.
I'm just watching my first game on BT Sport - Spurs v Chelsea. I have to say, hats off to BT. Excellent coverage of pre-match analysis, build up and match (so far). The use of "windows" on the screen to show, for example, manager reactions while play is continuing is a good addition as is the comments in play to give a referees perspective. Camera angles and sound are great, giving a real sense of the atmosphere. Jake Humphreys very good as the host and i like Steve McManaman although I don't much like Ginola and David James as pundits. Overall, top notch, and a worthy challenger to Sky.
It's early days for BT, Sky never got it exactly right from day one did they? In fact it took them some time to get it right, I think BT are doing OK, albeit as suggested a change of personnel would not go amiss. I too watched Spurs V Chelski very enjoyable, made me a bit jealous actually not to be in the top flight still
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Ultimately it's a good deal. One I'll take up as soon as I move house! But is it free? Of course not. You're paying BT for two things rather than one. But you're still paying them. To call it free is nonsensical and naive.
I think we're probably looking at this from different perspectives though
I am not a lawyer but as far as your example goes, I'd say it depends. Are you charging other people 10p to watch the games even if they don't pay you for broadband? If so, your football offer is a distinct product with its own value, and the broadband subscribers are getting it for free. If the football isn't a distinct product, then it's inclusive to the broadband package rather than being free.
In the case of BT Sport, it's a distinct product that you have to pay for if you don't have BT Broadband, but it's free if you do. Sky On Demand and Sky Go aren't available unless you have a Sky subscription, right? So they aren't free to Sky subscribers, they are just included in the subscription. I think they CAN call the Sky boxes free though, as you can buy a second one without having to sign up for a second subscription.
1) Call Sky on 08442 411653
2) Tell them you can't afford their recent price increase and want to know what you can remove from your package or say you want BT Sport so are looking to remove stuff to fund it.
3) If you are an established Sky customer they will tell you that they have a number of offers to save you money and you will get significant savings on particular offerings for three or six months and will probably be advised, like I was, to call back at a certain date for more savings.
4) I saved enough to have got BT Sport for free but am a BT broadband customer anyway. Fill your boots. Competition is good and Sky finally have some.