UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport is ready to make further significant investments in the sports-rights market after BT TV chief executive Marc Watson said that the company’s recent acquisition of Uefa Champions League rights was “worth every penny”.
Earlier this month telecommunications company BT acquired exclusive live rights for the Champions League and Europa League club football competitions in a deal worth about £299m (€352.4m/$478.9m) per season, from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
“We have been able to afford some pretty eye-watering sums because it drives a position in a big and lucrative market, and we are in a position to invest more,” Watson said. “I know that some have questioned how much we have paid for football rights, especially in the last couple of weeks, but the truth is that money makes a difference in a highly competitive market and we only pay what we think the rights are genuinely worth to us, and we hope that's enough to win it. The losers always say the winners have overpaid but we know we wouldn't have won it for less, and what we have got with the Champions League are some of the best matches on the planet and they are worth every penny.”
Referring to BT’s ongoing battle with pay-television broadcaster BSkyB, Watson added: “We don't have to steal Sky's share in the market to thrive. The market is definitely big enough for two. At the moment we put ourselves as being a strong second in the market and we are comfortable with that. I believe there is room for two strong sports broadcasters in the UK market.”
Watson said that BT would be open to bidding for future rights to the Fifa World Cup, but admitted that it may be difficult to secure coverage. Public-service broadcaster the BBC and commercial broadcaster ITV have historically shared the rights to the competition, with British law stipulating that it must be made available on free-to-air television.
Watson said: “They (Fifa, football’s global governing body) are welcome in my office any time. We will look at all opportunities but I think getting the World Cup off BBC and ITV would be a challenge.”