By Andrew Warshaw
October 11 – BT Sport, the new pay-tv competitor for Sky, is determined to acquire even more sports rights but is happy to “co-exist” with Sky in the market place, according to BT chief executive Gavin Patterson. Patterson has not ruled out acquiring Champions League games for his new channels in the future even though that could mean the competition no longer being shown on terrestrial television.
Champions League television coverage in Britain is currently shared between BSkyB and commercial free-to-air broadcaster ITV under a three-year-deal that expires in 2015.
BT has invested £1 billion in BT Sport – the biggest slice being £246 million a year for the live rights to 38 Premier League matches including 18 first picks. It has moved into an area long dominated by BSkyB but is using the carrot of free access to BT Sport to BT broadband users as a sweetener.
Patterson says there is even more to spend. “This is a long-term strategy for us and you can expect us to do a lot more in the future if the right opportunity to create value presents itself.”
Although predecessors like Setanta and ESPN failed to make inroads into Sky’s domination, Patterson said : “We believe we can co-exist. Our success does not require their failure. We want to expand the market. We want BT Sport to be about more than just blokes and football.”
Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham all feature in BT Sport’s December and January televised package and Patterson said: “In first half of the season Sky chose to use more of their first picks. They wanted to test our resolve. We are happy with the content we have got, but we also recognise there is much more we could do. We are encouraged by the start but not cracking open the champagne yet.”
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