[denphone]

l thought this was a interesting piece in The Independent this morning and here are some quotes.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...r-8930769.html

The game changed irrevocably at 2am this morning, when BT agreed to pay £897 million to secure exclusive rights to broadcast the Champions’ and Europa Leagues for three seasons, from 2015. It will be football, Jim, but not as we know it.

BT’s business strategy, to use sport as a driving force in its evolution from a telecommunications giant to a more modern, multi-faceted media company, is less of a blunt instrument than the “battering ram” Sky used to sell satellite dishes. But its impact promises to be greater.

Richard Scudamore, popularly assumed to have received a £3m bonus for the Premier League’s current record TV deal, which has yielded in excess of £5bn globally, has another bonanza on the horizon. Viewed logically, Sky have no viable commercial option but to bid extravagantly for the next round of Premier League rights, covering the three years from the 2016-17 season. Under the current deal, Sky broadcasts 116 live games a season to BT’s 38, but the balance of power has shifted significantly.

BT insiders claim they will not formulate their strategy until this time next year, but the admission that “we are a big, efficiently run business which can afford to invest when the deal makes sense” is ominous to their traumatised opposition.

Sky executives, whose plan to “strangle at birth” BT Sport was code-named Project Purple, awoke today to find their prospects of remaining major players in the sports TV market had a sudden, deathly pallor.

It is understood that Sky, confronted by the implications of failure, unsuccessfully lobbied Uefa to re-enter the bidding process after BT’s negotiations, as preferred bidder for the right to show 350 live European games, began on Wednesday night.

The TV market is changing. Al Jazeera, who have made strategic deals to cover Premier League football in Middle Eastern markets, are expected to bid for more extensive rights. Companies such as Amazon, Apple and Google are becoming increasingly attracted to football as a platform for the next generation of social media. The onset of fibre optic cabling opens up the possibility of watching matches simultaneously, in high definition.

BT have changed the dynamics of sport. Things have accelerated rapidly in the three years since, to declare an interest, I helped launch their online presence in football. Unlike previous challengers to Sky, whose annual revenue, £7.2bn is dwarfed by BT’s £18.3bn, they have the money to fund their ambitions.