Telecom deal offers English football free

Telecom’s first small step into sports content, a partnership with local English Premier League rights holder Coliseum, has failed to get sharemarket analysts off their seats.

Telecom announced yesterday that it had negotiated a 15 per cent discount for its broadband customers to watch English Premier League games online.

New customers signing up to ‘‘mid-range’’ broadband plans costing $85 a month will be able to watch a season of football, normally costing $150, free. That would be instead of getting a months’ free broadband. Existing customers can also go into a draw for 1000 free passes.

Speaking before details of the deal were announced yesterday afternoon, Xero chief executive Rod Drury said he was concerned about the impact on small internet providers if sports content was bundled up with broadband and sold as a package.

But Telecommunications Users’ Association chief executive Paul Brislen said he had no concerns about the deal that was finally struck.

First NZ Capital analyst Greg Main said he expected Telecom to follow up with other content partnerships.

One option might be for it to join up with an online movie provider such as Quickflix, he said.

Quin would not be drawn on whether Telecom might bid directly for sports rights in future.