NTL Mulls Premiership Bid And IPTV Expansion

NTL chairman James Mooney today re-ignited speculation over the cable giant’s intentions towards English Premier League football, with the media boss claiming the company is “evaluating carefully” before deciding whether or not to bid for the broadcast rights.

The company, which will soon rebrand under the Virgin marque (see NTL Confirms £962m Virgin Mobile Takeover), has previously been linked to a bid for Premier League rights, with an attempt to unsettle BSkyB’s dominance of the coverage widely expected following the merger of NTL and Telewest (see Cable Giants Set To Make Premiership Bid).

“The concept of Virgin Sports would very exciting for NTL,” Mooney told reporters at a news conference today, before claiming: “If I was Sky or BT I’d be pretty worried.”

Under new regulations from the European Commission, broadcast rights to Premiership games from 2007 will be auctioned off, with no single broadcaster allowed to air more than five sixths of the coverage.

In addition to his musings on a potential bid for Premiership rights, Mooney stated that the cable giant was working to extend its existing 50% coverage of UK homes through local loop unbundling.

The revelation suggests that the cable firm will offer a TV-over-broadband service in the same vein as London-based Homechoice, and similar to that planned by BSkyB (see Sky To Launch IPTV Service In 2007).

NTL: 01256 752000 www.ntl.com