Benoire:But they cannot cannibalise their existing setup without significantly compromising income; effectively Sky Basic part funds the sports package and the reason they can't split is that they have to pay significant sums for sports and charging that to sports only would probably be higher than $50 a month. Offering sports only at this stage, with the overheads that DVB-s has, would seriously undercut their income in my opinion... Obviously no numbers, but Sky UK is the same but has a larger base so the cost is less to each sub.
If they offered sports the only service, I would be straight on there and they would lose money as I'm not longer funding basics contribution to sports, unless it was at the true price of sports cost.
I agree. Sky makes $15 per sub per month, not much wiggle room until they can move solely to SVOD or satellite costs drop significantly. This merger doesn't really change that core issue. Fan pass is the sole sport option and a good one, even better when it's on ATV4.