BT Squares up to Sky on Sports

For the last couple of decades now, British sports fans have largely been reliant on Sky to be able to watch all the sports they want to. There has been a gradual loss of mainstream sports activity to the satellite TV provider with, of course, football being the absolute pinnacle. To say that UK football and, of course the Premier League in particular is big business these days, is to flirt with ridiculous understatement.

But there are other areas of sport into which Sky has made huge inroads including sports like cricket, darts, boxing, rugby league, and rugby union. In other words, Sky has gradually taken over areas of sport that were seen as traditionally part of the very fabric of British society and were previously seen as our given right to be able to watch – if not always live.

The advent of Sky and its gradual dominance in these traditional areas of British sport has been something of a double-edged sword. Yes, we have to pay and we have to pay rather a lot, particularly if we want to watch live Premier League and Champions League games, as well as the major darts, cricket, and rugby tournaments and major boxing bouts etc. But you’d have to admit that Sky has moved on this coverage to a whole new level, particularly over the last ten years or so.

The challengers to Sky’s dominance have, so far, been fairly lightweight in the shape of Setanta TV and others. But now, it looks like another heavyweight has entered the ring in the shape of BT and it will be interesting to see how this pans out over time.

BT Sport has already made big inroads and is expected to spend billions of pounds over the next ten years to challenge Sky’s dominance. Its two new sports channels are already up and running with exclusive rights to many live Premier League matches with further bids expected for the FA Cup, Champions League and England internationals whenever they become available.

BT is also expected to go for other sports including darts, a market that has also been cornered by the likes of betfair. The company has already signed a £152 million rugby union club deal that caused a stir within the game – and other big moves in other sports will surely now follow; watch this space.