Football’s coming… phone?
Posted by James Littlewood on June 15, 2012
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The news that BT have bought the rights to show 38 live Premier League matches for each of the next two years is interesting for two reasons.
It could be said to be a milestone in the journey towards technology platform integration when a telco company outbids TV rivals to win the right to broadcast the most watched domestic soccer league in the world. Are BT setting their stall out for a bigger TV play?
Secondly, the money. The £3bn price tag that the Premier League has put on the 154 live games values each game at an average of £20M - which makes next year’s season the most lucrative yet. BT must have decided that the potential advertising revenue and additional subscribers to their service is worth the outlay. Who can blame them, when this is the exact same model that Sky used to grow their subscription base in the 90s?
What isn’t clear however is what BT are going to do different to make being second choice to Sky as a football broadcaster work for them when ESPN and Setanta before them struggled to top the viewing league table.
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