I must be the only one who likes the channels. Mainly cause I get to see some Championshp games, La Liga. The online issue is a pissed off but the TV coverage is decent enough for $12 per month for up to 5 channels.
I think you've got the wrong end of the issue here.
I love the channels too, plenty of people do. The extra content is great.
It's the lack of on-demand, and the online offering in general, that is the problem, and the fact that it was promised to us but not yet delivered.
So for people like yourself who aren't so interested in the online side of things there is no real impact.
I've been really p*ssed off on a few occasions where I've been in the absolutely ridiculous situation of streaming illegally despite paying a decent amount of money for legal access.
The info coming out in the last 24 - 48 hours has entirely shifted my anger to Bein 100%. My only fault on Sky now is that it took them so long to tell us that the issue lay with Bein, and that they were actually trying to do something about it. They haven't really given a toss until it got into the media this week, which tells us everything we need to know about their priorities. Sad but guess that's the way of business these days. They don't care about the individual until the issues get in the public eye and become more damaging. At least these days it's easier to get the issues into the public eye.
So to re-cap, from the info I've read, this is basically what has happened as far as I can tell;
- Bein priced PLP and Sky and anyone else out of the market with a huge bid that was part of a wider global strategy
- Their strategy didn't really come to fruition, but they now have the NZ rights for 3 years, and absolutely no appetite to actually deliver a good product
- They signed a deal with Sky to provide the content to us in a haphazard way, that would enable them to keep their own costs down by not having to provide the platform, but at the same time double dipping by continuing to own the online component themselves
- In the end they don't really care about the service to NZ customers and tried to do the least possible when it came to the website, probably with inadequate project resource, meaning it was delivered late, and was of a low quality in terms of content and flexibility
- And have since gone underground entirely, leaving their poor social media team to cop the fallout