BT signs live football match deal

Broadcasters see football as a vital way of building their brand

UK phone company BT has announced a tie-up with Irish sports broadcaster Setanta that will allow it to broadcast live Premiership football matches.

The news comes as BT officially launches its new Vision television service, a move it hopes will turn it into a fully-blown multimedia company.

Setanta has rights for 46 Premiership matches for the 2007/2008 season.

BT's move will see its service compete against market leader BSkyB, which owns the rights to the other matches.

Sporting base

Focusing on sports such as football, rugby and cricket has helped turn BSkyB into one of Europe's biggest satellite TV broadcasters and the dominant provider in the UK.

According to BT, the tie-up with Setanta and an existing agreement to show nearly live football matches means that its service will give customers access to 75% of the 2007/2008 season's Premiership matches.

BT said it will also show Scottish Premier League and Nationwide Conference games, as well as European matches and other sports such as golf.

The company explained that it "will be offering Setanta's new sports channel, Setanta Sports, from next summer".

BT said that while it was entering a similar market, it would be looking to attract customers that did not want to pay a monthly subscription but wanted more services than were available through a simple Freeview box and package.

Slow start

BT's new service will function through a set-top box, which is linked to the user's aerial and to broadband.

Users will also be able to access more than 40 Freeview television channels and have access to a library of films, music videos and TV shows.

BT said that about 50,000 customers had signed up for its Vision service, but that it would only have "thousands" up and running by the end of this year.

It expected to have 200,000 customers using the Vision service by the end of 2007.

source:http://news.bbc.co.uk