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BT Sport have snatched the exclusive rights to live Champions League football from under the noses of Sky and ITV in a £897 million three-year deal.

It brings to an end two decades of live Champions League football on terrestrial TV, with BT Sport winning the rights to show all 350 matches, including the Europa League, each season from 2015 following talks with European governing body UEFA.

The broadcaster will also make the final and selected matches free to air, in a move that will "shake up the UK TV market" according to a spokesman. Sky and ITV currently share the rights.

Chief executive Gavin Patterson said: "I am thrilled that BT Sport will be the only place where fans can enjoy all the live action from the Champions League and Europa League."

The £299 million-a-year contract is more than double the current deal, with the clubs involved in the two tournaments set to benefit.

The 32 teams in the Champions League group stage currently earn a £2.8 million participation payment each as well as £396,000 for every match. The winner can earn £6.5 million, with the runners-up receiving £3.73 million.

"These games are going to need to be chargeable, that's true. But they'll be far more affordable than today's competition," said BT Sport consumer division chief John Petter.

"So today, to get the whole competition, you typically have to pay Sky £40 or so a month. The pricing is not being announced today, but I can say that this will be far more affordable than currently."

BT launched their UK Sports channels at the beginning of August, and have already spent £738 million over three years for the rights to show 38 live Premier League matches this season. Sky paid £2.3 billion for 116 matches a season.

I haven't lived in the UK for years and get my football from dodgy streams, so it doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me. But anything to get rid of Chiles can't be a bad thing - the worst TV presenter in the history of ever who somehow never goes away.

If that stuttering pausing tw@t ends up on BT sport I'll turn luddite and smash the internet.

Surely this will be a killer blow for Sky in its present format,premium content football going over to an adversary,the implications for their subscription fan base is going to be mind boggling.

How many will continue to shell out in excess off £70.00 a month for a few top Premier League picks ?

As it will now stand FA Cup BT Sport,Europa League BT Sport 20 Premier League top picks,Champions League BT Sport.also you get the Bundesliga and loads more.

Sky is done for

Tesl wrote:I haven't lived in the UK for years and get my football from dodgy streams, so it doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me. But anything to get rid of Chiles can't be a bad thing - the worst TV presenter in the history of ever who somehow never goes away.

If that stuttering pausing tw@t ends up on BT sport I'll turn luddite and smash the internet.

zabbadabbado wrote:Surely this will be a killer blow for Sky in its present format,premium content football going over to an adversary,the implications for their subscription fan base is going to be mind boggling.

How many will continue to shell out in excess off £70.00 a month for a few top Premier League picks ?

As it will now stand FA Cup BT Sport,Europa League BT Sport 20 Premier League top picks,Champions League BT Sport.also you get the Bundesliga and loads more.

Sky is done for

Means the bidding for the next PL contract may be even higher, as without it Sky will have big problems & will either lose millions of subscribers or have to make their film channels etc seriously cheap.

If BT sport have the capital to invest, then Sky are in trouble.

Be funny if the Sheikh then bought into BT sport.

zabbadabbado wrote:Sky is done for

Watch Sky pull the plug on BT channels on their HD box

CTID Hants wrote:

zabbadabbado wrote:Sky is done for

Watch Sky pull the plug on BT channels on their HD box

But what if BT then win the Prem rights, people use their boxes with no Sky ? Sky could be out of business in no time.

Wouldn't think they would dare risk it.

What happens if sky offer a contract to the 'BIG 20 ' European teams and they form a breakaway as discussed in another earlier thread.
Could get interesting

Thing is, how much are people willing to pay for all of this?...with this so called "recession" (which is a fucking con, this is how it is now and will remain... calling it a recession that will blow away somehow is a fucking con job)..how many people are going to view PPV football as too much of a luxury?..to me...earning below average salary, its an easy question to answer. It doesnt matter how much tinsel and sex spray they shower it with...norwich v stoke is the same its always been and a meaningless group game in the CL is what it is...BT and sky overestimate their own importance and underestimate ours as customers, but wont be the first companies to do that, especially in television.

Ted Hughes wrote:

zabbadabbado wrote:Surely this will be a killer blow for Sky in its present format,premium content football going over to an adversary,the implications for their subscription fan base is going to be mind boggling.

How many will continue to shell out in excess off £70.00 a month for a few top Premier League picks ?

As it will now stand FA Cup BT Sport,Europa League BT Sport 20 Premier League top picks,Champions League BT Sport.also you get the Bundesliga and loads more.

Sky is done for

Means the bidding for the next PL contract may be even higher, as without it Sky will have big problems & will either lose millions of subscribers or have to make their film channels etc seriously cheap.

If BT sport have the capital to invest, then Sky are in trouble.

Be funny if the Sheikh then bought into BT sport.

I am not sure many people subscribe to the movies because they want to.The way they price their packages you end up adding it because it it works out at about only £8.00 extra on the £43.00 sports package.If they upped the price and priced it differently their wont be many takers because most only want Sky Sports,the reason most subscribe for the lot is because the rest is pretty cheap compared to Sports.

Netflix and Lovefilm are cracking value for movies and box-sets at £5.00 a month,hundreds off movies and complete box sets like prison break and Breaking Bad.If just one family member subscribes you can have a few users off the same account.Me and my son share one account and we can both watch what we want when ever we want.Sky wont beat that,they argue their movies are out 12 months before the others get them,maybe ?,but they are repetitive on for weeks on end.

I am actually with BT Sport now i watch it through my Sky Box,i stopped subscribing to Sky because i watch it all on a friends Sky go account through a HDMI connection straight on to my Plasma Tv,not much difference,no lag with broadband or anything.Have noticed the malicious tw@ts have knocked off 5hd.

Great news! Hope it's the first nail in the coffin of Sky and News International.

Massive blow for them but they are still the no1 sports broadcaster. They are no1 for rugy league, rugby union, cricket spanish football, formula 1 etc...

They need to lose a couple of the others to go into a tailspin. Plus BT need to make a big success of it to become big competitors. If they make a mess of it, sky might have to step in and rescue them....we have seen that before.

walshawblue wrote:What happens if sky offer a contract to the 'BIG 20 ' European teams and they form a breakaway as discussed in another earlier thread.
Could get interesting

football is in line for some dramatic power changes in the next decade...
i predict that fifa and the associated regional/domestic bodies will no longer be running things come 2023
qatar will be the final nail in their coffins..

Peter Doherty (AGAIG) wrote:Great news! Hope it's the first nail in the coffin of Sky and News International.

SKY have pissed me off so much - subscriptions, RAG bias, Martin Tyler, stopping SKYTEXT etc etc

CTID Hants wrote:
Watch Sky pull the plug on BT channels on their HD box

The CL and Europa games are only going to effect those fans whose teams are in the competitions. Those teams not involved will have fans that are not bothered by this change.
For us it means more expense if we are paying for PL games in Sky and the CL games on BT.

For BT to pay nearly £900 million, they must mean business. I can only imagine this is step 1 in their business plan. If they can snatch the PL contract as well, they will hold majority rights to the most watched league in the world and the biggest club competition in the world.

Also, because they have made such an audacious bid, each PL team in the CL will automatically receive nearly £25 million. Already an advantage over lower positioned teams and a system which will support the already rich like in Spain and Germany.

Because we are already up there in CL positions each year, we will keep getting these incentives, but do we really want our league to become one like Spain's and Germany's where you know who will be champions before the first game has kicked off.

I want city to be champions for ever, but I also want our league to stay unpredictable because of the quality our the teams in it.

BT should now merge with or buy Virginmedia to ensure they have a reliable platform for distribution of their channels and not be reliant on sattelite for most of their subscribers. They have the infrastructure already in place to take cable national through their broadband platform. The competitons panel wont like it as it will reduce choice in taking out a major phone/broadband competitor but it will seriously shake up the TV market giving us the viewer a real alternative to Sky.

BT should now merge with or buy Virginmedia to ensure they have a reliable platform for distribution of their channels and not be reliant on sattelite for most of their subscribers. They have the infrastructure already in place to take cable national through their broadband platform. The competitons panel wont like it as it will reduce choice in taking out a major phone/broadband competitor but it will seriously shake up the TV market giving us the viewer a real alternative to Sky.

I am sorry but my sympathy for clubs has gone when they voted for FFFP. The clubs basically voted for the status quo to continue ie rich clubs getting richer as long as it meant they could continue to outpace those in the championship ie the likes of Everton, Newcastle so assuring themselves of Premiership football ad nauseum

They understood or should of that the gap between them and the top 4 was likely to get bigger but they also knew the gap between them and those in the championship was also getting bigger hence why not being relegated is the first target for 10/15 of the clubs in the premiership

I didnt notice any concerns from United , Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea fans when we had the "Sky4" so I certainly wont be worrying about anybody else

People do realise that no-one is putting a gun to their heads to buy Sky or BT I have neither. If it was a choice between paying for Sky or BT and getting a season ticket I know which I would rather and for away games I for one am happy to watch a streaming channel via a pc in a foreign language as the coverage is less biased

Ted Hughes wrote:

zabbadabbado wrote:Surely this will be a killer blow for Sky in its present format,premium content football going over to an adversary,the implications for their subscription fan base is going to be mind boggling.

How many will continue to shell out in excess off £70.00 a month for a few top Premier League picks ?

As it will now stand FA Cup BT Sport,Europa League BT Sport 20 Premier League top picks,Champions League BT Sport.also you get the Bundesliga and loads more.

Sky is done for

Means the bidding for the next PL contract may be even higher, as without it Sky will have big problems & will either lose millions of subscribers or have to make their film channels etc seriously cheap.

If BT sport have the capital to invest, then Sky are in trouble.

Be funny if the Sheikh then bought into BT sport.

It would. Would be even funnier if he already had!


BT need to make a real fist of this, do some research among fans and neutrals in CL games and get the commentary/analysis teams to be normal modern people, not condescending tw@ts or agenda driven w@nkers. Surely they cannot do worse than Sky, everyone hates them while shelling out a small fortune. If BT can refresh the analysis they will win a lot of support and potentially up the subscription level from what Sky usually gets, do that and they can carry on outbidding Sky with confidence.