[andy_m]

Not if by doing so they don't drive subscriptions to their own products. Take Sky Atlantic. The argument on here is often that viewing figures are low and they'd make more money from advertising revenue by opening the channel up to cable viewers. But that simplistic argument ignores the fact that Sky estimate that Atlantic drives a quarter of new subscriptions to its platform and, by their own admission, that's where the real money lies.

BT cannot hope to recoup their investment in this rights cycle, in my opinion, and certainly not through advertising revenue generated by wholesaling a channel to other operators when it could be better used to drive subscriptions to its broadband product.

FWIW, I think it's a good deal for BT broadband customers, and having once been one of those I can only say that it's about time BT broadband customers had a good deal!