BT Unveils Pricing for Sky Sports Nets

LONDON: BT Vision is undercutting Sky on the pricing of its sports channels, offering Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 for £16.99 per month.

A subscriber who takes just one of the two channels will pay £11.99. Customers who sign up for a two-year bundled broadband and telephony package can secure the BT total sports package for £6.99 for Sky Sports 1, ESPN and on demand sport or £11.99 for Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2, ESPN and on demand sport. BT says that £11.99 package works out as £205 cheaper than Sky’s current equivalent deal and £281 cheaper than Virgin Media over a year. The British digital TV platform is looking to use the sports channels to ramp up its subscriber base, which currently stands at some 467,000.

Gavin Patterson, chief executive of BT Retail, said: “Football fans will be cheering our new prices, which mark an end to paying for basic channels when you only want the sport. We expect that entry prices as low as £6.99 will welcome in a huge number of extra customers who’d love to enjoy these channels, but thought they were too expensive. A more competitive market will ensure that customers continue to get the best sport for the sharpest prices and this opening of the market will be in the best interests of customers.”

BT clinched a wholesale deal with Sky at the end of last month. It followed an Ofcom ruling that the satellite platform must offer its sports channels to rival operators at a 23.4 percent reduction on the previous wholesale price. At present, that works out to £17.14 per subscriber. However, Sky is upping the prices of its sports packages in September from £35 to £38 for all channels and from £26 to £29 for just Sky Sports 1 and 2. With the new retail prices, BT’s wholesale price will rise to £19.07 per subscriber.