How much will YOU pay to watch football on TV next season?
Lineker’s Euro stars say: This is now the place to be
THE battery of BT Sport Champions League pundits, presenters and executives formed an orderly queue yesterday to make the most of a remarkable own goal by Sky Sports chief Barney Francis.
BT’s lavish launch of their new service, which includes live broadcast of all 351 Champions League and Europa League matches next season, means millions of TV viewers face a massive change in order to see matches from the top two European competitions.
Sky customers who have previously enjoyed Champions League matches as part of their sports package will now have to decide whether they will pay extra to receive BT’s coverage.
Even BT subscribers who receive BT Sport free as part of their broadband will have to spend more to watch European matches.
Francis had tried to undermine BT by claiming on the eve of their arch-rival’s announcement that TV viewers’ interest in the European flagship tournament was in rapid decline and that the Barclays Premier League was ‘seven times bigger’ for Sky. But BT’s all- star line- up, including hosts Gary Lineker and Jake Humphrey and analysts Steven Gerrard, whose deal was agreed this week, Rio Ferdinand and Glenn Hoddle, begged to differ.
Hoddle, who has signed a threeyear contract with BT in preference to an offer to remain with Sky, led the way in dismantling Francis’s deliberately timed comments.
Francis had wanted the first word before BT promoted their exclusive coverage of the Champions League, having paid £897million for a threeyear deal to take the tournament away from Sky and ITV.
Hoddle said: ‘This is the place to be for the next three years. The Champions League is the creme de la creme, the best tournament in the world.’
Ferdinand said: ‘ This is unquestionably the greatest club tournament in the world and it’s a great feeling to be part of it.’
Gerrard, who will contribute to BT while finishing his playing career with LA Galaxy, also had his pick of TV offers and added: ‘It’s the ultimate competition that every player and every supporter wants to be involved in.’
Francis had also astonished BT by somehow making a virtue on his blog of Sky’s Champions League attendances falling by 38 per cent and not a single European match featuring in their top 40 matches.
BT Sport managing director Delia Bushell, former Sky executive, said: ‘We were surprised that Sky should make so much of their Champions League ratings going down, especially when the company still shows this fantastic event in other territories in Europe. We are going to raise the bar, which will help Sky raise their game as well.’
Lineker, whose new five- year BBC contract allows him to host Match of the Day and BT Sport’s Champions League coverage in a £ 3m annual package, said in reference to Francis’s blog: ‘Sky no longer wanting the Champions League bodes well for the future.’
Lineker had a brief Twitter spat with his new BT colleague Jake Humphrey two years ago when the newcomer suggested pundits fresh out of the dressing room gave more incisive and informative analysis.
Lineker interpreted that as a dig at Match of the Day veterans Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson but said yesterday: ‘The most important thing is the pundits have knowledge to share and the panel here certainly have that.’ Humphrey called the BT panel: ‘The best line-up I’ve ever seen.’
BT Sport, as Sportsmail revealed last week, will be charging an extra £5 for their European content, which includes eight games a night being screened simultaneously, allowing viewers to dip in and out with red button technology.
BT Sport are also promoting that the 351 matches will still be free for those who take BT TV. And the sales pitch that will no doubt be
countered by Sky is that fans can watch all the live football available for £779 per year on BT compared to £1,116 on Sky.
In another move, BT Sport will make a minimum of 12 Champions League and 14 Europa League matches available to anyone, including non- subscribers, via a new free-to-air channel called BT Sport Showcase. In addition, they announced the launch of the first Ultra HD channel in Europe, BT Sport Ultra HD, which will open with the Community Shield between Chelsea and Arsenal on August 2.
John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, said: ‘When we launched we promised to make televised football far more accessible and affordable. 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.’
But remarkably the only football figure at BT’s Olympic Park headquarters who was not entirely on message about the Champions League was their extravagantly paid ambassador, Jose Mourinho.
He said: ‘I’m desperate to win the Champions League. I’m not obsessed with it. When Chelsea won it, they did it with their worst side of the last decade.’
Meanwhile, Sky Sports defended Francis’s controversial blog, saying he was trying to make the point that the Premier League was a far more valuable commodity for the network and that BT always talk a good game.