UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB’s share price fell by more than nine per cent early on Monday morning after telecommunications company BT acquired exclusive live UK rights for the Uefa Champions League and Europa League club football competitions.
BT agreed to pay about £299m (€352.4m/$478.9m) per season for the rights for three years, from 2015-16 to 2017-18, dislodging Sky and commercial broadcaster ITV as rights-holders in the UK. BT pledged to show a selection of matches free-to-air, including the finals of both tournaments, and one match per season of each British club taking part.
According to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, BT’s successful offer to Uefa was nearly twice as much as Sky’s.
By 9.30am on Monday morning, Sky’s share price had fallen by 9.16 per cent to 844.8p on the London Stock Exchange. BT’s share price had dropped by 0.35 per cent to 370.8p by the same time.
Sky and ITV, which currently pay £240m and £155m for their Uefa packages, are understood to have offered £500m and £220m, respectively, to renew their rights for the next cycle.
“If we thought it was worth more, we’d have paid more,” a spokesman for Sky said. ITV added that it was “not prepared to pay over the odds” for the rights. ITV’s loss of Champions League and Europa League rights leaves it with no live club football from when its current Uefa contract expires in 2015.
However, BT chief executive Gavin Patterson said he believed shareholders supported the move, adding that the company had a “business case” for what it paid.
“If you have lost it the first thing you say is they have paid over the odds,” he said. “This is what it was worth to us… We have attracted millions of customers by giving sport back to the fans, and we can assure people who want to catch all the action, that European football will be far more accessible and affordable with BT.”
BT’s agreement marks the first time a single UK broadcaster has won the exclusive live rights to all matches from both tournaments. The deal includes the rights for 350 matches per season.
BT said that it would pay a deposit of around £60m for its new contract this month followed by six monthly instalments commencing July 2015.
The company said the exact value of the deal is €1,075,981,484 over the three seasons.