Bt Sport Announces European Line Up
Gary Lineker and Steven Gerrard are amongst the new names set to join the line up of BT Sport Europe, a channel that becomes the new home of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.
As part of the announcement, BT has revealed that all 351 matches from the two European club competitions next season will be free for customers who take BT TV.
BT Sport paid £897m to beat ITV and Sky to the rights to the Champions League in 2013, with the deal due to run for three seasons.
The channel has announced that access to European football will cost £5 per month for BT broadband customers, although Premier League, Premiership rugby and the Scottish Premier League will remain free.
BT TV customers will be able to receive the full BT Sport Pack for free – comprising BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, ESPN on BT Sport and the new BT Sport Europe channel, which launches on 1st August as the new home of top European football.
Gary Lineker, Jake Humphrey and Rio Ferdinand will front the live UEFA Champions League coverage.
They will join the BT Sport team which includes Paul Scholes, Michael Owen, Steve McManaman and Owen Hargreaves, as well as new signings Steven Gerrard, Harry Redknapp, Glenn Hoddle and Howard Webb.
The channel will also broadcast a new ‘Goals’ show, presented by James Richardson, where viewers can tune in on Champions League nights to enjoy news and action across all eight games as it happens.
BT, who also announced it will be launching a new Ultra HD channel in August, will give its broadband customers the option of receiving BT Sport 1 for free for a third season.
This channel will show all 38 live Barclays Premier League matches as well as the Aviva Premiership and SPFL.
John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, said: “When we launched BT Sport we promised to make televised football far more accessible and affordable than it has been to date. We have opened the market to millions of new customers and we want to build on that as BT Sport becomes the undisputed home of European football.
“We are of course giving our best offer to existing customers – broadband customers will get the new BT Sport Pack for the heavily discounted price of £5, whilst customers who take broadband and TV from us will get it absolutely free.
“This is a new chapter for European football on TV. BT Sport will show hundreds of live matches throughout the tournament using the very latest technology. Our presenters and experts will also provide the smartest insight and analysis.”
BT will make some matches available for everyone to watch, whether a subscriber or not, via a new, free-to-air channel on digital TV. Called BT Sport Showcase, this channel will show a minimum of 12 UEFA Champions League matches and 14 UEFA Europa League matches and these will be available to anyone to watch for free. Each participating British team will be shown at least once.
Finally, the company has announced that in August it will also launch the first Ultra HD (4K) channel in Europe, BT Sport Ultra HD, and will also introduce a new BT TV Ultra HD set top box.
The Community Shield will be the first broadcast, with other live events shown throughout the season, including selected games from the UEFA Champions League, Barclays Premier League, FA Cup and Aviva Premiership Rugby.
