BT to offer BT Sport free to broadband consumers
BT has announced that will be offering BT Sport free to any consumer broadband customer, making weekly live matches from the Barclays Premier League free for the first time in over 20 years.
The three channels – BT Sport 1, 2 and ESPN – will make available 38 live football matches from the Barclays Premier League, as well as up to 69 rugby matches live from the Aviva Premiership, for which BT will be the sole broadcaster.
By offering BT Sport free with BT Broadband, BT hopes to appeal to the vast majority of UK homes, of which only one in five currently subscribes to a sports channel.
“UK Sports fans have had a rough deal for too long,” said Ian Livingston, BT chief executive. “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.
“BT is the home of broadband so the fight for customers will now take place on our own turf. BT Sport will complement our world class fibre network. Customers don’t have to take BT Infinity to get BT Sport but we are encouraging them to move onto fibre broadband so they can enjoy the best of both worlds.”
Gavin Patterson, BT Retail chief executive said that the launch of BT Sport is an ‘important’ moment for UK TV and is expected to ‘shake up’ the market.
BT Sport will be available directly from BT and customers will require a set top box to access the free channel.
The news comes amidst an ongoing row between BT and Sky, in which Sky has refused to air BT’s multi-million pound ads during the Premiership.
A complaint has since been made by BT to media watchdog Ofcom and is currently being investigated under the Code of the Prevention of Undue Discrimination between Broadcast Advertisers.
In response to the move, Jonathan Doran, principal analyst at Ovum said: “As these channels will also be available via the BSkyB satellite platform, this means that Sky TV customers will be able to receive BT’s sports offering, including premiership football and rugby amongst others, for free as long as they stick with, or migrate to BT broadband.
“With Sky currently the most aggressive of BT’s competitors in the fixed voice and broadband markets – this is a judicious strategic move which, with substantial TV marketing ready to go live today, should prove a successful ploy for BT.”
However, Doran said that Ovum believes BT’s TV strategy remains ‘muddled’, with two distinct brands still cluttering its messaging and some unclear benefits listed attributed to its various TV packages.
“Much work is therefore needed to simplify the offering and drive home the advantages of BT’s TV service over that of the competition,” he said.
One of BT Sports’ new ads can be seen here: