By Paul Nicholson
August 16 – On the eve of the opening day of England’s Premier League season, broadcast newcomer BT Sport and Manchester City have announced a three-year content partnership. The deal will include BT Sport broadcasting exclusive weekly interviews from key members of the playing and coaching staff, and access to behind-the-scenes content, on average expected to be three hours per week.
While a number of Premier League clubs have their own broadcast channels, Manchester City to date have kept their video content as clips and features on their website, rather than creating a full TV channel. The deal with BT Sport is the first of its kind in the Premier League.
As part of the partnership, the club’s purpose built pre-match entertainment area will be renamed BT City Square. BT Sport will broadcast live match day programming before every home game.
Simon Green, Head of BT Sport, said: “We look to reflect the passion of sports fans and to create unique, engaging content and this partnership helps to give us the inside track”.
BT Sport has the rights to 38 Premier League matches per season and Manchester City will be a focus of their output. The first of Manchester City’s home games to be screened by BT Sport will be against Hull City and Everton, with more games to come later in the season.
Manchester City chief commercial and operating officer, Tom Glick, said: “We are delighted to work together with BT Sport as their first official partner and look forward to close collaboration to drive innovative content that can be shared across each of our media platforms.”
BT Group has also added to its distribution with the signing of a three-year wholesale agreement with Virgin Media TV to supply their customers with BT Sport channels starting this weekend, just in time for the season kick-off.
The deal delivers BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN to customers. BT Sport will be available at no extra cost for Virgin XL TV homes. Other customers must either upgrade to Virgin XL TV or add BT Sport to their existing package. BT Sport will also be available on Virgin TV Anywhere.
Virgin Media already offers all the Sky Sports channels, with Sky Sports 1 and 2 in HD.
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