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It looks like they're trying to outdo Sky in the obnoxious former player stakes - we can look forward to Rio 'Pug' Ferdinand as lead ANAList plus the considered insights of Seven 'me me me' Gerrard as pundit. It's not all bad though, Lineker is joining them too (I quite like him).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... aunch.html

Steven Gerrard has been unveiled as a Champions League pundit for BT Sport as the broadcaster kicks off their exclusive coverage of European football's premier competition.

BT Sport will screen both the Champions League and Europa League next season after signing an unprecedented £897million three-year deal.

They have revealed that 351 matches will be free for customers who subscribe to BT TV.

Those with Sky, but who have BT Broadband, will be charged £5 extra a month. BT Sport however, are yet to reveal how much it will cost fans without BT Broadband. The BT Sport package available for non-BT Broadband customers costs £13.50 per month last season, but this is expected to rise in the wake of BT's blockbuster deal.

A minimum of 12 Champions League games and 14 Europa League matches will be available to anyone to watch for free via a new channel called BT Sport Showcase.

Each participating British team will be shown at least once. Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal will take part in next season’s Champions League. Manchester United and Celtic will also be in the tournament providing they successfully negotiate their qualifying ties.

Ferdinand, the former United and England defender, has been unveiled as a lead analyst for the channel. Former Liverpool captain Gerrard, who is set to move to LA Galaxy, was surprisingly unveiled as a pundit for the broadcaster.

Former Tottenham and West Ham manager Harry Redknapp, Glenn Hoddle, the former England boss, and retired referee Howard Webb have also joined the brodcaster. Gary Lineker has been unveiled as a presenter for the channel alongside current host Jake Humphrey.

John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, said: 'When we launched BT Sport we promised to make televised football far more accessible and affordable than it has been to date. We have opened the market to millions of new customers and we want to build on that as BT Sport becomes the undisputed home of European football.

'We are of course giving our best offer to existing customers – broadband customers will get the new BT Sport Pack for the heavily discounted price of £5 whilst customers who take broadband and TV from us will get it absolutely free.

'This is a new chapter for European football on TV. BT Sport will show hundreds of live matches throughout the tournament using the very latest technology. Our presenters and experts will also provide the smartest insight and analysis.'

On the eve of BT's glitzy launch, Sky Sports chief Barney Francis fired the opening shot in the latest battle with their rivals by claiming that viewers' interest in Europe's flagship Champions League is on a rapid slide.

Writing in his blog, Francis argued that the Champions League — which BT snatched from Sky and ITV — was not the valuable asset it once was. He said it accounted for just 2.5 per cent of Sky Sports' viewing figures and claimed the Barclays Premier League was 'seven times bigger'.

I think they mean 'lead' as in made out of lead, leaden.

Starfish?

Rio?

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Don't have BT TV or Broadband, so no CL football for me next season. Glad I decided to not bother with the home games either, I can just pretend the entire competition doesn't exist.

Wouldn't it be great if the rags don't get past the qualies for the CL .

zuricity wrote:Wouldn't it be great if the rags don't get past the qualies for the CL .

If only Carling did CL Qualifiers........

nottsblue wrote:Starfish?

Rio?

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

They are joining Owen and McPointer, you could argue they've strengthened.

Imagine how well it would go with rags, if every time Utd played on the tv, they had Mike Summerbee or Gary Owen telling the world where they went wrong ?

That's what we have in reverse, every fucking week, on every fucking channel.

How is Gerrard getting involved from LA?

Am I missing something really obvious here like the invention of teleporting technology? Does the U.S. Season run at different times to ours?

Im_Spartacus wrote:How is Gerrard getting involved from LA?

Am I missing something really obvious here like the invention of teleporting technology? Does the U.S. Season run at different times to ours?

They will fly the cunt here or wherever, midweek.

Blue Since 76 wrote:Don't have BT TV or Broadband, so no CL football for me next season. Glad I decided to not bother with the home games either, I can just pretend the entire competition doesn't exist.

Dont know what my missus will say when she finds out the SKY (BT through SKY) subscritption is going up again.

Still never mind

Ted Hughes wrote:

Im_Spartacus wrote:How is Gerrard getting involved from LA?

Am I missing something really obvious here like the invention of teleporting technology? Does the U.S. Season run at different times to ours?

They will fly the cunt here or wherever, midweek.

Thank the Lord the Dippers aren't in it.

New CL contract and an organisation that sponsors City fills their 'expert' seats with shithouses who will give us little or no credit and have no insight into our club who, will be bigging up at least one team that won't even be in the compy.

This was a chance for BT to move media direction and they've fallen on their arse at the first hurdle.

BT have just sent me an email saying its an increase of £5 per month for BT sports. If I want to continue paying what I pay now, I have to hit the downgrade button and I will get BT Sports 1 only. no F Cup games either.

Oh well its time for me to do a beefy and fuck the lot off. It will same me £80 a month and might actually make me do something else rather than watch every game! If fact, I have made my mind up. Bye Bye Sky and BT sports.

Im_Spartacus wrote:How is Gerrard getting involved from LA?

Am I missing something really obvious here like the invention of teleporting technology? Does the U.S. Season run at different times to ours?

If he is on the panel, then the Scousers will claim another win.

Wonderwall wrote:BT have just sent me an email saying its an increase of £5 per month for BT sports. If I want to continue paying what I pay now, I have to hit the downgrade button and I will get BT Sports 1 only. no F Cup games either.

Oh well its time for me to do a beefy and fuck the lot off. It will same me £80 a month and might actually make me do something else rather than watch every game! If fact, I have made my mind up. Bye Bye Sky and BT sports.

Good decision. I dont miss the shower of shit at all

Wonderwall wrote:BT have just sent me an email saying its an increase of £5 per month for BT sports. If I want to continue paying what I pay now, I have to hit the downgrade button and I will get BT Sports 1 only. no F Cup games either.

Oh well its time for me to do a beefy and fuck the lot off. It will same me £80 a month and might actually make me do something else rather than watch every game! If fact, I have made my mind up. Bye Bye Sky and BT sports.

£80!!!!

Clucking bell - that is a serious amount of money mate.

dave watson's perm wrote:

Wonderwall wrote:BT have just sent me an email saying its an increase of £5 per month for BT sports. If I want to continue paying what I pay now, I have to hit the downgrade button and I will get BT Sports 1 only. no F Cup games either.

Oh well its time for me to do a beefy and fuck the lot off. It will same me £80 a month and might actually make me do something else rather than watch every game! If fact, I have made my mind up. Bye Bye Sky and BT sports.

£80!!!!

Clucking bell - that is a serious amount of money mate.

It's a fucking nonsense isn't it. To subscribe to Bein sports here, it costs a tenner a month and they have virtually every premier league game, every champs league game, most domestic cup games involving the top 6, along with all the games in Germany, France, Italy and Spain

When you consider that BeIN's territory stretches from Morrocco to Iraq, and north to Lebanon and the number of people that actually covers, British subscription TV is nothing but an absolute rip off both because of the prices paid by the broadcasters, but also because of the profit margins they are demanding.

If I can give people a suggestion, I know that a year or so back, anybody used to be able to subscribe to BeIN sports online for about £80 for the year. As long as u got a VPN and a decent broadband connection, you can do it that way and pay just the single subscription, dunno if it's available for next season though

Not only was it wank bt getting TV rights in the first place, causing people to fork out for another subscription, but now even more because they spunked over the odds for champions league.

To make it even worse they add camel gob and Gerrard with their main man Michael cheese and onion Owen.

MilnersJaw wrote:Not only was it wank bt getting TV rights in the first place, causing people to fork out for another subscription, but now even more because they spunked over the odds for champions league.

To make it even worse they add camel gob and Gerrard with their main man Michael cheese and onion Owen.

In reality, the main issue for consumers in all this is that I assume Sky won't be reducing their sports package price correspondingly for the rights they have lost. BT have to charge something, and it was always going to be subsidised for their own broadband and phone customers, that's the entire point of winning the rights I would have thought? However, when I was back in the UK for a few months last year, I had to setup telephone and broadband for my flat and I bought the BT TV package as well for a fiver a month, which included BT sport for free - however with the set top box they provide on the non-'inifinity' broadband, you cant watch BT sports, whats the fucking use of that? So to watch the CL, people will in fact have to either pay the premium through sky, or sign up to BT's top whack broadband package, which seems a bit unfair.

Sky's statement though is telling, viewing figures down over 35% in the last 3 years. I expect with the subscription being split between sky and BT, BT will just drive even more people, particularly casual fans of non-participating teams, to streams or away from watching the champions league full stop - which would be a good thing if it helped lead to further reform of the competition as we've already seen happen with the changes to the 1st seeds.