BT Sport to show live football conference matches

The Football Conference and BT Sport have agreed a two-year deal to show 30 live matches a season from the Conference Premier.

BT Sport will host live broadcasts from the grounds for 25 league matches, plus both legs of the play-off semis and the Promotion Final at Wembley, from the start of the 2013-14 season in August.

The deal will bring live football from the fifth tier, immediately below League Two, to a much wider audience, which will enable marketing opportunities and sponsorship deals – ultimately raising the profile of the conference as a whole.

Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said: “We are not just interested in the glamour of the Premier League; we’d like to bring the excitement and grit of the Conference Premier to a new audience, as well as its existing strong fan base.”

Green added that ‘fantastic stories and characters’ will come out of the conference, which may give BT a small advantage over Sky who has never broadcast football outside the professional game.

Sky announced last week that they will be offering subscribers free live sport from the first day of the premier league.

Brian Lee, chairman of The Football Conference, said: “We welcome the opportunity to be joining the revolutionary BT Sport, which we are sure will be a ‘game changer ‘ for ourselves and BT Sport.”

BT Sport will show 38 exclusive live football matches from the Barclays Premier League, including 18 of the ‘top picks’ from August 2013 for three seasons. The channels will also show live FA Cup, Europa League and Scottish Premier League matches, as well as top tier live football from Germany, Italy, France, Brazil, Australia and the USA, plus action from the FA Women’s Super League.