BT is beefing up its content with a new channel that will broadcast a range of football, motorcycle racing, tennis and rugby programming.
The telco yesterday revealed it has secured the rights to broadcast 38 English Premier League football matches, MotoGP races, several Women’s Tennis Association tournaments, and English rugby games. BT plans to offer the sports coverage and related programming for free to its broadband subscribers, and is using the lineup to attract new customers by offering its fiber service for £15 (€17.77) per month, and copper broadband for £10.
BT also plans to make BT Sport available to rival BSkyB’s digital customers, and will reach TV sets via a YouView or Vision+ set top box.
Chief executive, Ian Livingstone, says the sports package and broadband deals allow it to fight for fixed line customers “on our own turf,” while Gavin Patterson, chief of the telco’s BT Retail division, noted the launch of BT Sport will “shake up” the UK’s TV market.
The move into sports is something of a gamble by BT, with the Premier League football rights alone costing £738 million the UK’s Telegraph reports.