Sky to launch free broadband offer for sports customers

UK pay-television broadcaster Sky is set to offer free fibre broadband to its Sky Sports customers, according to Sky TV’s director of brand Luke Bradley-Jones.

Bradley-Jones told the Campaign website that the initiative is part of a marketing push ahead of the first season of its new rights deal for the English Premier League club football competition.

Bradley-Jones said Sky is introducing the fibre broadband offer as a means to ensure customers “get more value out of their subscriptions”. He added: “Broadband is an integral part of what we're offering. Sky Sports customers are among our most important customers and we want to pack in the value.”

The Premier League has awarded live domestic rights over three years, from 2016-17 to 2018-19, to Sky and pay-television rival BT Sport for a total of £5.14bn (€6.04bn/$6.67bn). In November, Sky also extended a rights deal for near-live extended highlights of the Premier League across the same three-season window.

Under the deal, Sky will be able to show extended highlights of all 212 Premier League matches that are not broadcast live on television and, for the first time, fans will also be able to watch these highlights on demand. From next season, the new deal coincides with newly-added mobile clips from all 380 Premier League matches, as well as live rights to 126 games.

UK telecommunications company BT offers a similar free broadband offer to its BT Sport customers.