UK telecommunications company BT has announced that more than 500,000 households have now subscribed to its new BT Sport pay-television service.
The total includes 23,000 new customers who were added in the three months to June 30, according to the Guardian newspaper. BT Sport attracted 40,000 new subscribers in the previous quarter.
BT said that although more than 500,000 households have now ordered BT Sport, the figure “mostly” comprises existing customers who have taken the channels for free as part of re-contracting their BT broadband service.
In May, BT said it would offer BT Sport for free to broadband customers as it seeks to compete with rival pay-television broadcaster BSkyB.
A statement from BT read: “It is early days but we are very pleased that more than 500,000 households have now ordered BT Sport. As expected, most of these are existing customers who have re-contracted their broadband service. We expect the proportion of new customers to increase after we launch the channels on August 1.”