Pay TV phase three document - Stakeholders - Ofcom

Pay TV phase three document – non-confidential version
76
Guinness Premiership 112 . The figure below summarises evidence of consumers
overlapping preferences for sports.
Figure 12 Preferences for football cricket, golf or rugby
Football
33% 47%
Football very
important to 80% of
subscribers
Source: Ofcom Sports Conjoint research
4.98 By contrast, very few subscribers found events from only a single (non-football) sport
to be important 113 :
� 1% consider only cricket as important.
� 1% consider only golf as important.
� 1% consider only Guinness Premiership rugby union as important.
4.99 Our research suggests that although football is the key sport on Sky Sports 1, other
sports on that channel are important to significant minorities of consumers. For
example Figure 12 shows that 54% considered events from at least one of cricket,
golf, rugby union or rugby league to be very important. The vast majority of this group
also consider football very important.
4.100 We analysed BARB data for 2008 to consider what live sport (including football) on
TV would substitute for content found on Sky Sports 1.
4.101 We assessed whether close substitutes for these above sports are available on
alternative channels: Setanta Sports 1, other Sky channels, other FTA channels or
other sports channels. Finally we set out the implications for market definition.
4.102 Football is clearly the most important sport on Sky Sports 1. It is also by far the most
important sport on TV with total rights values amounting to £[ � ]m per year in
2008 114 . Sky Sports 1 contains a significant amount of FAPL, FA Cup, and some
112 Ofcom sports conjoint research, see Annex 10 to Ofcom’s Second Pay TV Consultation
113 Ofcom Sports conjoint research, See Annex 10 of Ofcom’s September 2008 for details.
114 See Appendix 5 of Annex 6 for details.
Cricket,
golf or
rugby
7%
Cricket, golf or rugby
union very important
to 54% of
subscribers