By Andrew Warshaw
August 22 – ITV has denied reports that it is in ground-breaking discussions with telecommunications giant BT for live broadcasts of Premier League fixtures.
The Daily Telegraph reported that any arrangement would see top-flight games shown to a national free-to-air audience for the first time.
Although BSkyB still dominates the market, in the latest rights deal BT paid £738 million ($1.17 billion/€935 million) to broadcast 38 fixtures per year for three years from next season.
A tie-up with ITV, said the Telegraph, would allow BT to showcase to a wider audience a sample of the matches it plans to offer on its own pay-television service, BT Vision, which will include a new, dedicated football channel.
But ITV said it was not in any negotiations to air any of BT’s games although it was planning to pitch for the £100 million-plus ($159 million/€127 million) contract to produce the company’s live football coverage.
“We are not talking to BT about taking any of their Premier League matches for broadcast on ITV channels,” said an ITV spokesman.
“If BT were looking for a production company to produce their Premier League coverage, that is something that we would of course look at, as we do with other potential contracts.”
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