Delia Bushell, managing director of television and sport for UK telecommunications company BT, has defended the new pricing strategy for its pay-television service BT Sport and has maintained the firm is not on a “trolley dash” to acquire sports rights.
BT Sport last week announced plans to launch a free-to-air digital channel, BT Sport Showcase, to offer live coverage of some Uefa Champions League and Europa League football games next season, along with confirming a new price structure for viewers from the 2015-16 season.
BT Sport said it would charge £5 (€6.96/$7.59) per month for BT broadband subscribers to watch European club football next season, although coverage of football’s English Premier League and Scottish Premier League plus the Premiership, the top division of rugby union in England, will remain free for those customers.
All 351 matches from the Champions League and Europa League will be free for BT TV subscribers as part of the BT Sport Pack, which will comprise BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, ESPN on BT Sport, and the new BT Sport Europe channel, which will launch on August 1 as the new home of BT Sport’s European football coverage.
The broadcaster’s parent company, BT, will also give its broadband customers the option of receiving BT Sport 1 for free for a third season in a row. In an interview with UK newspaper The Guardian, Bushell conceded that the BT Sport offer is “not as simple” as it was before – but, she insisted, “retaining simplicity and simple price points was important in how we drive it forward”.
She also maintained that the £5 a month charge is a “knockout price” for customers – comparing it to a minimum of £45 for a sports subscription with pay-television rival Sky.
Concerning the link between the price increases and BT’s investment in its Uefa rights package, along with the renewal of its rights to the Premier League, Bushell sought to answer criticism over the competition between it and Sky for the prized rights to the top division of English football. She highlighted that because the Premier League sells its rights in a blind auction, different broadcasters can end up paying vastly different prices.
“From the previous Premier League auction, Sky’s prices were inflated by 80 per cent, and ours were inflated by 17 per cent,” Bushell said. “That’s probably a question you would need to ask them (Sky). We feel we have actually bid in a very rational, disciplined way. We’re not on a trolley dash to take all the sports rights in the marketplace.”
The launch of BT Sport Showcase has led to questions over whether BT will seek to target rights to events currently reserved for broadcast on free-to-air platforms. “I wouldn’t comment or speculate on future rights, because clearly keeping your cards close to your chest is key to success,” Bushell added. “I don’t think there are any sports rights that we would say are not for us.”