BT wins £897m Champions League deal

[josie andrews]

BT Sport has announced an exclusive £897m three-year deal which will end two decades of live Champions League football on terrestrial TV.

The broadcaster has won the rights to show all 350 matches each season from 2015 after talks with European governing body Uefa.

A spokesman said it had "shaken up the UK TV market" and would make some games, including finals, free to air.

The news is a major blow to Sky and ITV, who currently share the rights.
While BT said it was the first time a single UK broadcaster had won the exclusive live rights to all matches from the two tournaments, Sky said the deal was "far in excess" of its own valuation.

"I am thrilled that BT Sport will be the only place where fans can enjoy all the live action from the Champions League and Europa League," said BT chief executive Gavin Patterson.

The contract, priced at £299m a season, is worth more than double the current arrangement, which could mean significantly more money for clubs in the two European competitions.

Each of the 32 teams in the group phase of the Champions League currently receive a participation payment of £2.8m and £396,000 for every match played thereafter in the group stages. This can grow to £6.5m for the winners, while the runners-up receive £3.73m.

As part of the deal, BT has said it will show at least one match involving each participating British team for free every season.

John Petter, boss of the company's consumer division, told BBC Radio 5 live the new deal would mean customers having to pay for some of the matches.

"These games are going to need to be chargeable, that's true. But they'll be far more affordable than today's competition," he said.

"So today, to get the whole competition, you typically have to pay Sky £40 or so a month. The pricing is not being announced today, but I can say that this will be far more affordable than currently."

However, Sky indicated its rival had paid much more than it was prepared to offer.
"We bid with a clear view of what the rights are worth to us. It seems BT chose to pay far in excess of our valuation," read a statement from Sky.

"There are many ways in which we can invest in our service for customers. We take a disciplined approach and there is always a level at which we will choose to focus on something else. If we thought it was worth more, we'd have paid more.

"Nothing changes until 2015 and we look forward to 18 more months of live Champions League on Sky Sports. We will now re-deploy resources and continue to bring customers the best choice of TV across our offering."

BT launched its UK sports channels on 1 August 2013 in a challenge to the dominance of sports coverage on Sky.

BT has already spent £738m over three years for the rights to show 38 live Premier League matches for the 2012-13 season, while Sky paid £2.3bn for 116 matches a season.

Other events in the BT portfolio include the rights to Premiership Rugby and motorsports such as Moto GP and Nascar, as well as taking over ESPN's UK sports channels.

Only last week, it said more than two million people had subscribed to its television sports channels since August and reported six month pre-tax profits of £948 million.

For its part, Sky announced in October that record numbers had tuned into the start of the football season (external) - with an average audience of 1.55m compared with 1.29m last year.

News of the deal first emerged in Saturday's edition of the Telegraph newspaper, and was confirmed on Twitter by BT Sport at 10:00 GMT.


http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/24879138

[Kaii]

This only shows that the £18m league received off sky was not just pathetic but an insult to everyone who enjoys the sport. Probably agreed by the same fools who though a grand final between two of the biggest teams in the world didn't need a sponsor

[platt-warrior]

How obscene this whole "tv deal" is.The tv companies are squeezing every last drop they can out of us, poor old Joe Public.The amount of money being quoted is i repeat obscene.

[josie andrews]

How obscene this whole "tv deal" is.The tv companies are squeezing every last drop they can out of us, poor old Joe Public.The amount of money being quoted is i repeat obscene.

:eusa2:

Well said

[willie c]

Won't make much difference to me wouldn't watch football if they were playing in my back garden

[Kaii]

How obscene this whole "tv deal" is.The tv companies are squeezing every last drop they can out of us, poor old Joe Public.The amount of money being quoted is i repeat obscene.

They don't get anything from me i can spell Wiziwig

[doc]

The annoying thing is that RL fans, who have to subscribe to sports channels to watch matches bar the poor BBC Challenge Cup coverage, are paying through the nose to subsidise the ridiculous amount of money that Sky cough up for the football rights.

[cpwigan]

I look at this from a sport perspective OR rather RL.

Like it or not there is now competition for TV Sporting Contracts. RL has to get on board somehow because at the moment we are a ridiculously cheap buy for any of the TV companies. I really think we need a new competition, early season along the lines of the old JPS/RT and more international tournaments which can then be bid for by whomever to generate more money for our sport.

[Owd Codger]

The annoying thing is that RL fans, who have to subscribe to sports channels to watch matches bar the poor BBC Challenge Cup coverage, are paying through the nose to subsidise the ridiculous amount of money that Sky cough up for the football rights.

The coverage of the Challenge Cup by the BBC is good compared to the coverage of the present World Cup by Premier Sports.

A reason why I have watched the England games and the one Welsh game on the BBC rather than Premier Sports.

As for Sports TV contracts, it only shows how we the public are being ripped off with the prices they are charging for us to watch sport on television, especially football.

[cpwigan]

I do think terrestial TV remains VITAL. Even if we are on BBC 4/3 AND/OR delayed post live showing elsewhere whatever we need more and more people able to watch RL.