Bt Sport Extends Free Coverage Deal
BT Sport will keep its channels free to its broadband customers for a second Premier League season, when it will again broadcast 38 live matches throughout the 2014/15 campaign.
The news comes as BT revealed around five million homes now take BT Sport, nine months after the channels went live last August. Around three million of those homes take the service directly from BT – either via satellite, BT TV or the BT Sport App – with the remainder taking the service via wholesale deals struck by BT.
There will also be more live rugby on the channels next season.
John Petter, BT Consumer chief executive said: ‘Fans have been the winners with BT Sport. Millions of homes have enjoyed the very best sporting action for free. We said we would shake up the market and we have done just that.’
‘The great news for fans is that BT Sport will remain free with BT Broadband for another season, during which we will broadcast live action from the new European rugby tournaments. There has never been a better time to switch to BT Broadband so I would encourage sports fans to sign up.’
The company added that BT’s own set-top box offering, BT TV, has also passed the one million household milestone, after growing by roughly 170,000 customers during BT’s first season as a football broadcaster.
During its first Premier League season, BT has averaged 774,000 viewers per live games, with its biggest match featuring Manchester City against Liverpool in December, which had an average audience of 1.6 million.
The average audience from Premier League matches on Sky Sports this season has been 1.5 million, up 7%, according to BSkyB, with last weekend’s games between Liverpool and Chelsea attracted a peak audience of 3.29 million.
