BT offers free Premier League football in BSkyB battle
BT is to offer free Premier League football coverage to its broadband customers, the telecoms company has announced. After winning a three-year deal to show 38 Premier League games a season, BT has signalled its intent to challenge BSkyB's dominance of sports pay-TV. BSkyB's shares fell nearly 6% as BT unveiled its plans, which includes a £10-a-month broadband package. BT has 6.3 million broadband customers, but just 750,000 pay-TV customers. The aggressive move is an attempt to establish itself as a major multi-platform provider, offering TV, internet and telephone in one package.
BT Sport's channels will also show 69 live Aviva Premiership rugby matches per season, plus live football from leagues in Germany, France, Italy and Brazil. Chief executive Ian Livingston said: "UK sports fans have had a rough deal for too long. Many have been priced out of the market, but we will change this by giving away BT Sport for free with our broadband. "Sports fans are the winners today."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22462525
Unsurprisingly the Sky news website isn't carrying this story
BT will offer the two new sport channels and ESPN free for the first year to customers who take its broadband products, marking the first serious attempt to combine exclusive TV services and the internet. Customers who do not have BT’s broadband can access BT Sport via Sky’s own platform for £15 per month in HD. Of the 20 million UK households with broadband, more than a quarter already take it from BT. The company said it would make the switching process easier. It has cut the price for fibre broadband, offering superfast speeds, to £15 per month and to conventional broadband to £10 per month. BT claimed the move will “return sport to grassroots fans”, and said it would be “the first time in more than 20 years that weekly live matches from the Barclays Premier League will be free to watch”. There will be 38 live and exclusive football matches from the Barclays Premier League, including 18 of the top fixtures chosen by BT, and up to 69 live rugby matches from the Aviva Premiership, where BT will be the sole broadcaster.
Access to the broadband service will reqire a set-top box, either from YouView or Vision+ box for BT TV, both of which are available via BT.
After the first year, BT Sport will cost £3 per month to BT customers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...kes-on-TV.html