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BT ramps up sports offering with free Champions and Europa Leagues

BT ramps up sports offering with free Champions and Europa Leagues

Gary Lineker and Rio Ferdinand (pictured) will front the latest season alongside Jake Humphrey.

BT is to show all 351 matches from the UEFA Champions League and Europa League next season for free for customers who take BT TV.

BT TV Customers will receive the full BT Sport Pack – comprising BT Sport 1, 2, ESPN on BT Sport and the new BT Sport Europe channel which launches on 1 August.

BT Broadband customers who choose to watch on their Sky service via the BT Sport app or on BT Mobile will also have the opportunity to add the BT Sport Pack, but for a charge of £5 a month.

“When we launched BT Sport we promised to make televised football far more accessible and affordable than it has been to date,” said John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer.

“We have opened the market to millions of new customers and we want to build on that as BT Sport becomes the undisputed home of European football. This is a new chapter for European football on TV.”

BT secured the exclusive rights to the Champions League in 2013 after beating Sky and ITV with an £897 million bid.

The latest season will be fronted by Gary Lineker, Jake Humphrey and Rio Ferdinand, who will join the rest of the BT Sport team which includes Paul Scholes, Michael Owen, Steve McManaman and Owen Hargreaves. Steven Gerrard (pictured, far left), Harry Redknapp, Glenn Hoddle (pictured, far right) and Howard Webb are also set to join the team.

Ken Odeluga, a senior market analyst at www.cityindex.co.uk, said that the offering will further fuel competition with archrival Sky.

“This is BT’s latest move in its current strategy to use premium sports programming as a tool to sell its fast broadband service and build a TV business. Furthermore it has come as a bit of a surprise.

“Given the £897 million price tag that BT bid to take the rights from under Sky and ITV noses, it was widely assumed that they would charge for it in an attempt to recoup the investment.

“In response to the new BT shares were trading marginally higher whilst sky was down 0.5% heading into the afternoon session.”

According to the company’s latest financial report, BT Sport TV channels are now in more than 5.2 million homes.

The group recorded a 14% rise in pre-tax profit to £2.6 billion for year end to 31 March – alongside a small dip in revenues of 2% to £17.85 billion.

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