BBC & Bt Sport Secure FA Cup Rights
The FA Cup is set to return to the BBC next year after a seven-year absence, with BT Sport also securing UK television rights to the world’s oldest knockout cup competition from 2014/15.
The BBC replaces ITV as the free-to-air home of the competition, while BT Sport will continue a partnership with the Football Association (FA) that begins with the channel’s launch next month, having assumed ESPN’s rights to show FA Cup matches.
The broadcasters have both agreed four-year deals with the sport’s governing body for live coverage and highlights.
The exact details of the deals have not been revealed, but the BBC will definitely have a share in the live rights to the final, due to the game’s protection for free-to-air coverage under UK law.
ITV will continue to show FA Cup games for the new season, it’s final year of its current deal, and will remain a partner of the FA as the exclusive live TV rights holder to all England internationals, with the rights to friendly matches joining the channel’s international portfolio that already includes England’s qualifying games.
FA chairmen Greg Dyke – a former director general of the BBC – said: ‘I would like to thank everyone who expressed an interest in these FA Cup broadcast rights and congratulate the BBC and BT Sport on their successful tenders. Their valuable support underlines what a great competition the FA Cup is and how important it is to the sporting calendar. ITV have done a tremendous job in recent years and we look forward to their fantastic continued support of the England team.’
It was also confirmed that BT Sport will have the live rights to the football season opener, the FA Community Shield.
Meanwhile, the BBC has revealed it spent £66 million, excluding rights fees, on covering the London 2012 Olympic Games and surrounding programming and events.
In its annual report and accounts for the year to 31st March, 2013, the broadcaster also disclosed that additional investment in its coverage of London 2012 – the biggest outside broadcast it has ever attempted – was largely responsible for a 3.4% year-on-year increase in total content spend to £2.53 billion.
For this investment, the BBC got programming and other content that it said reached 90% of the United Kingdom population.
While 52 million used their televisions to tune into the Games and 7.8 million listened to coverage on Radio 5 Live and Olympics Extra, less traditional platforms were also widely utilised, with the BBC claiming 32 million unique browsers, of whom 8.6 million watched on mobile browsers and 2.3 million on tablets.
BBC One showed 858 hours of sport in 2012/13, up from 580 hours a year earlier, while radio broadcast 5,550 hours, up from 4,230 hours.
