BT Sport - General Discussion

BT was plotting more raids on BSkyB’s most prized sports content on Sunday night following its staggering £900 million capture of Champions League football.
The media giant’s £2 billion spending spree on some of the world’s most valuable broadcast rights is understood to be far from over, with nothing thought to be off limits in terms of future properties.
Sky Sports’ coverage of England cricket and rugby matches, British and Irish Lions tours, the Ryder Cup golf, men’s tennis and Formula One could all therefore come under threat in the coming years, never mind the broadcaster’s strangle­hold on Premier League football in the next round of bidding.
BT did not just have Sky in its sights, with rights held by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 also likely to warrant serious consideration as it attempts to fill a hole in its summer schedule.
BT Sport was on Sunday still basking in the glory of becoming the first rival network to eclipse Sky in an auction for a major football property, having blown it and ITV out of the water to become the exclusive home of the European club game for at least three years from 2015.

..... from Telegraph (Paywall seems down at present)

I wouldn't be surprised to see them pick up Formula 1 when the rights are on the market. Think the cricket is tied up with Sky for a few more years.

Guess BT could go after the Cycling from ITV 4, if they don't mind advertising Sky a lot, it's quite a hot property now more so than it has been in the past. I suspect the French Open will be a big target too when it comes up.

Channel 4 only really have horse racing, which already has pay TV and needs a certain amount of free to air exposure.

Formula 1 and the Cricket are both tied up until 2018 and F1 could be owned by Murdoch by then!

ITV are paying very little for the French Open (the BBC used to get it free with their EBU subscription ) and are almost certainly going to lose it next time.
Today was the last day of MotoGP on the BBC, it was also a bargain at just 1m a year for the rights. One of the reasons BT went all out with the CL deal is because there is no more major auctions again until 2015 when the Premier League rights will be back up.

You get 20 articles a month free, that might explain it.

23 hours after BBC's Moto GP exit, BT will start its coverage (at 1) of equipment practice In Valencia this afternoon for the 2014 season.

How exciting.

.... and next BT as FTA World Cup broadcaster????

Fifa have confirmed it would “welcome” a BT bid for 2018 and 2022 World Cup rights following the broadcaster’s £900 million Champions League acquisition.
Sports rights holders have been licking their lips since BT blew BSkyB and ITV out of the water to secure exclusive coverage of European club football between 2015-18 on Saturday.
Unlike Sky, BT has shown a serious appetite to showcase some of its football content on freeview since entering the market, a policy it will continue with the Champions League and Europa League.
Because the World Cup is a listed event, it would have to make a similar commitment for any matches it acquired at the expense of the BBC and ITV.

from ……..

SPORT on TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
12-Nov-2013 @ 23:31

Don't get too excited, it wont happen. How do they make their money back for a start?


It's unlikely the BBC would want to turn their back on ITV. So for BT to beat them they'd need to bid at least double what ITV pay for half the tournament for the whole tournament and the more games you add the less advertising revenue you can get from each one.

They wouldn't get the same level of advertising revenue as ITV do either, by virtue of the fact it would get less viewers.

So the only advantage would be it's a shop window for them to talk up their other football, none of which would be going on at the same time.

Worthwhile noting that BT's head of TV Marc Watson announced his intention to resign today.

BT Sport Broadband customers regardless of type who buy Chromecast will be able to cast BT Sport's channels to their TV sets soon.

Non exclusive (its on BBC Red Button too) World Triathlon coverage overnight on BT Sport 2 tonight.

BT Sport will remain free to BT Broadband customers next year:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a567836/bt-sport-to-stay-free-on-bt-broadband-for-second-season.html