BT Sport beat Sky to punch in Wilder-Fury bidding war

BT SPORT have won a bidding war against Sky for the UK television rights to Tyson Fury’s world heavyweight championship rematch with Deontay Wilder. Sky tabled what has been described as a ‘huge offer’ to snatch the first mega-fight of the decade, partly with a view to pre-empting competition for a Wembley Stadium title unification between the winner and Anthony Joshua later this year. But the decision for Fury to stick with BT Sport was swayed by the potential for millions of subscribers buying Wilder-Fury II on pay-perview. The BT Sport Box Office broadcast from Las Vegas on Saturday, February 22 will be available not only to their regular customers but also for purchase by the general public through a variety of TV channels — and via streaming to multiple devices including smart phones. That wider audience reach raises the prospect of this repeat of Fury’s epic draw with Wilder eclipsing the UK record 1.6million buys set by Sky Box Office in December, when Joshua regained his collection of world championship belts from Andy Ruiz Jnr in Saudi Arabia. At the asking price of £24.95 that night, Sky will have generated some £40million in sales revenue, before advertising income. The money now involved in big-time boxing gives credence to an understanding that Sky’s bid for the second edition of Wilder v Fury was well in excess of £10m. BT Sport charged £19.99 for the first Fury-Wilder fight and may resist raising their price, given optimism that they could get more than two million buyers next month.