BT (LON:BT.A) has stuck a deal with Virgin Media ahead of the new Premier League season that will give the pay-TV company’s 3.8mln customers the chance to watch BT's top flight games.
Those signed up to Virgin’s most expensive package will be able to watch BT’s three sports channels for free as part of the three-year wholesale agreement, while the rest can pay extra for the channels.
BT Sports 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN went live two weeks ago, signalling the start of a new era for the telecoms giant.
It splashed out £738mln on the rights to screen 38 Premier League matches a season for three years as ESPN was priced out of the competition. Sky meanwhile paid £2.3bn for 116 matches a season.
BT is hoping to challenge Sky’s dominance in the sports-TV market and has not offered BT Sport to Sky as it tries to lure customers away from its main rival.
It has already signed up more than a million customers for the new service, many of whom are existing broadband customers lured in by the prospect of watching Premier League football for free.
Marc Watson, BT TV’s chief executive, said: “I am delighted we have signed a deal with Virgin Media that increases the audience for BT Sport to around three million homes overnight.
“BT is rewarding its loyal customers with free sport and it is great to see Virgin Media immediately making BT Sport available to so many of their customers.”
He added: “BT has made a large investment in BT Sport and this is an important commercial agreement for us that recognises the excellence of the channels.
“We are keen to make our services as widely available as possible and to do so via wholesale arrangements. We are doing this with Sport.”
BT shares rose 1.4%, while Sky lost 1% on the news.