Marc Watson, the chief executive of UK pay-television operator BT Vision, which re-emerged as a major player in the sports rights market at this year’s English Premier League domestic rights auction, has said his company will unveil another rights acquisition in time for Christmas.
Watson, speaking in an interview in UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph, would not reveal what the next acquisition will be, but the report said it was rumoured to be a tennis property. TV Sports Markets understands that BT Vision is close to a deal for Women’s Tennis Association Tour rights in 2013 to 2016, which are being sold by digital media specialists Perform Group in partnership with the IEC in Sports agency.
Watson ruled out Formula One motor racing or cricket properties, saying “Those rights are tied up for years to come.”
The chief executive said that BT was open to distribution deals for its new sports pay-television channels, which will launch next year, with rival pay-television operators.
“We will be making our sports rights available on satellite, and we’re open to wholesaling if the terms are right,” he said. “People won’t have to swap set-top boxes or subscribe to BT broadband to watch our football matches.”
This raises the prospect that the BT channels could be carried on the satellite platform of BT’s main rival BSkyB, the pay-television operator. Sky outbid BT for several of the packages of Premier League domestic rights in the highly competitive auction in May and June this year for the rights in the 2013-14 to 2015-16 period.
Watson said the sports content BT was acquiring would drive subscribers to its platform. “Subscriber numbers are currently 750,000 but we expect that number to increase significantly,” he said. “We’re looking for retail relationships, which includes deals with bars and clubs, too.”
BT’s sports channels will be called BT Sports 1 and BT Sports 2. The first channel will show BT’s best sports content, and the second channel will be used for scheduling conflicts.
BT has so far acquired rights for Premier League football, English club rugby union’s Premiership in 2013-14 to 2016-17, and football from the Italian Serie A, French Ligue 1, American MLS and Brazilian leagues in deals beginning in 2013-14. It is also reported to have acquired rights for French Top 14 club rugby union.
Watson denied that BT’s approach to rights acquisitions was in any way indiscriminate, in response to allegations that it was taking a “buy whatever’s available” approach after failing to acquire rights for as many Premier League matches as it wanted.
“We had a strategy, and would have bought more if the price had been right,” he said.
He added: “We’re not in the business of buying everything that comes through the door. We have a strategy, and we’re being very selective. We’re building a sustainable brand.”