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"Sports rights will continue to spiral upwards . There was a real risk of "mutually assured destruction" for the industry, Enders said.
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BT's Premier League deal last year had already inflated the cost of sports rights. Media analyst Claire Enders described BT's deal as an attempted "death strike" on Sky, that could come back to bite it.
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Experts said last night that there were plenty of doubts around the plan and the broader implications for an increasingly cut-throat battle over sports rights. The true sports fan is going to want both services."īT will have to fend off questions from anxious investors when financial markets open this morning over its gamble that exclusive sport can win it lucrative broadband customers. But BT Sport is injecting a very welcome and much needed element of competition into the market. They have the biggest number of customers paying the most money and we are the new boy. "It shouldn't be forgotten that Sky is still dominant in premium sport. I think they are pretty important," he told the Guardian. "These rights are key ones for football fans and determine if they are going to go with your service or not. John Petter, head of BT's consumer division, defended the deal for the midweek championship matches as crucial to the business and good news for grassroots fans. That includes the £246m a year already spent for 38 Premier League matches and an estimated £25m on FA Cup rights. It means BT will be spending £81 a year for each of its 7 million broadband customers on football rights. But the former telecoms monopoly quickly faced criticism for pumping yet more millions into the rich world of football while its customers brace themselves for price rises in the new year.Īt £299m a year over the three years of the deal, BT is paying more than double the £400m BSkyB and ITV are paying for the current three-year contract. It means the BT Sports channels will become the new home of Uefa's Champions League matches, in the most serious challenge yet to the football dominance of Rupert Murdoch's Sky.Īnnouncing the deal this weekend, newly appointed BT chief executive Gavin Patterson hailed it as "giving sport back to the fans".