BT Sport passes million mark

More than a million households are now signed up for BT Sport, the company has reported.

The million total includes satellite TV customers – both free and paying – as well as customers who are watching via BT TV.

The news comes days before the Barclays Premier League is due to kick off. Earlier this year BT Sport announced that it will show 38 exclusively live football matches from the Barclays Premier League, including 18 of the ‘top picks’, for each of the next three seasons – free for any consumer broadband customer.

John Petter, BT Consumer managing director said: “These are early days but we plan to make the most of this initial surge in demand as fans get excited about the football season ahead. Huge numbers of customers are signing up every day, which is testament to how fresh, vibrant and exciting the channels are.

“The market needed a new entrant to shake things up and that is precisely what we are doing.

“It is clear that many customers want BT Sport as well as Sky Sports. The good news for those customers is that they can do exactly that, and save a lot of money by taking our broadband and getting BT Sport for free,” Petter said.

However, despite reaching the million mark, just 23,000 new TV subscribers signed up to BT in the three months to the end of June. This compares with 40,000 in the first quarter, while rival TalkTalk signed up 160,000 new subscribers.