Great price at Blue Sport!

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The news comes on Tuesday afternoon – and it should upset the stomachs of some fans. The football channel Blue Sport is becoming more expensive for the occasional viewer! Anyone who previously bought individual games via the Swiss payment channel (price in the Super League and Champions League CHF 9.90 per game) will no longer be able to do so in the future. As of June 21, Blue is eliminating the Pay-Per-View feature.

In addition, there is a price increase of just over 15 percent for annual subscriptions: those who take out an annual subscription from the summer now pay CHF 34.90, five francs more than before. If you still want to remain flexible, you have to dig deeper into your pockets: the monthly cancellable subscription now costs CHF 49.90. In other words, if you used to buy single games, you now have to watch five games a month to get the flexible plan.

Existing customers continue to pay the same

The good news for anyone who takes out their subscription before June 21: the annual subscription should continue to cost 29.90.

“We are actually at a new point in our long history as a sports broadcaster,” says Chief Product Officer Blue Sport & News Claudia Lässer (46). “This is mainly due to successively rising rights and production costs. Several other sports channels have recently increased their prices. Sometimes even clear. We are far from that. We increase the prices for an annual subscription on average only five francs per month.” She is convinced that the offer is still attractive. “We offer a football package that is unique in Europe with the most important competitions and more than 3,000 live events per month In most other countries you have to take out two to four subscriptions for the same offer – and pay much more accordingly.”

“Compared to other European countries, we are not an isolated case”

The single option has gone out of fashion in recent years. “Our numbers speak for themselves, the interest in the pay-per-view offering has declined enormously,” says Lässer. So this is now history. “Compared to other European countries, we are not an isolated case: there almost exclusively subscription models are offered without the possibility of individual retrieval. A market reality that we now have to face. As an alternative, there is now the monthly subscription, which offers customers maximum flexibility.”

The question arises: in December, Blue Sport proudly announced the renewal of the Champions League rights package – does the price increase have anything to do with it, did the Swisscom subsidiary pay too much for the rights? Lässer: “As a sports broadcaster, you are just one of many cogs in the football world: the leagues that award the rights have their ideas and demand more income, as do the clubs, which of course hope to earn more money with every match. to get the TV money, for example to finance transfers. »

More matches in Super League and European Cup

She adds: “Ultimately, we are a company that thinks economically. When acquiring sports rights, various aspects and factors must be taken into account, which set clear financial limits on an offer.”

In addition, Blue Sport has even more games to show and prepare. With the new Super-League mode, 48 more games will be produced and broadcast from the summer. From 2024, around 200 more games will be added with the European Cup mode changes. «We produce in three languages ​​for the whole of Switzerland and due to the manageable size of the market, we only have limited opportunities to monetize licensing costs and cost recovery. Ultimately, we have to be frugal.”

Source : Blick