The competition is hotting up in the broadband arena, and the launch of BT Sport which is
promising that for the first time in 20 years weekly matches from the Barclays
Premier League will be available to watch for free would appear to put BT
Retail head to head with Sky and its traditional position as the king of sport
on pay TV.
Of course the free element requires you to be a customer of BT Retail on one
of its BT Total broadband or Infinity products, for those who are not the
package of BT Sport 1 and BT Sport 2 and ESPN channels will be £15/month in HD
or £12 in standard definition.
There are multiple ways in which people can watch the channels, and a short
summary follows, though we are some way off from the big kick-off in 84 days
time.
- On BT TV with BT Infinity The channels streamed over the
FTTC or FTTP connection to the YouView set-top box. If you sign up before 1st
August 2013 you will get the HD charge of £3 waived for a year. - On an app or online player Using any broadband connection,
you just need to log into the app or website to view the content. This means BT
customers with free access can watch sports when out and about or at a friends
house. - On the Sky Digital satellite platform BT customers
qualifying for a free BT Sport service will be able to subscribe for free to
the new channels, or any one with a Sky service can add the channels for the
£15 or £12 fee. - Via Digital Terrestrial (Freeview) With the addition of a
conditional access card (£10) to a BT Vision set-top box BT Sport 1 & 2
will be available, with ESPN only available via the app and Internet
streaming.
BT Sport will be available for ordering from May 10th for those who are
ultra keen, to encourage people to switch BT is also running a promotion
whereby one of its Infinity products is available from £15 per month, or an
ADSL2+ product for £10 per month. The press release suggests these new offers are also available
to existing BT broadband customers if they agree to a new 12 month contract,
and the cost of the monthly telephone line rental needs to be added.
As we highlighted the BT TV service over Infinity relies on the wholesale Connect TV product which is only available to
fibre based areas currently, the package checker on the BT website checks this
as you go through the ordering process. Your location and how the BT TV service
can be delivered to you will also govern whether its a YouView or BT Vision
set-top box that is supplied with the TV package. The £10 ADSL2+ package seems
to be a saving of £3 per month compared to the standard 10GB data allowance
price of £13 per month, and the same level of saving for the baseline Infinity
service.
Update 10th May We have double checked with BT after some
people are getting worried that they will need to commit to a new 12 month
contract. For existing BT customers there is no need to extend
your contract, just being an existing customer means your BT details will work
once the app and web streaming are launched in August. Where the 12 months is
mentioned in relation to contracts it refers to enabling the free access on Sky
satellite TV or the BT TV platform.
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Great news!
I cant justify the cost of Sky Sports but as a BT infinity customer already this is a really nice bonus, 38 live matches a season plus footy from other euro leagues and some FA cup matches too.
Very pleased I moved back to BT a few years ago, I can see them attracting quite a few new customers with this offering.
Is this added to current contracts or only renewed/new contracts?
The BT Sports to all contracts, no need to renew.
The renew part applies to those after the £10 broadband or £15 Infinity deals.
As someone who’d rather poke his own eyes out with a blunt stick than watch a bunch of millionaires chase a ball round a field, it seems I’m either going to have to pay more for my phone package to subsidise this twaddle or go through the whole misery of getting out of BT’s near criminal rolling contract. Deep joy.
So glad that it’s not just on BT vision/you view platform, couldn’t cope with more boxes! The competition that is going to start in earnest between SKY and BT should be a benefit to consumers.
I assume that I will be able to access BT Sport through the web browser my WIFI connected smart TV. Or am I incorrect?
If I had a fast enough broadband connection for streaming video I might consider switching to BT for the MotoGP next year, but as it is I’m very hacked off that they’ve pinched it from the beeb…
According to the FA only 8 m people in the UK watch football, so 52m don’t. I’m not in the slightest interested in football, but if I was I couldn’t get it as our BT Internet ADSL ‘broadband’ is just too slow! We’re lucky to see 2 Mbps on a very good day and absolutely no prospect of fibre, we’re too rural.
Not a good marketing ploy by BT I feel as it appeals to too few people.
I hope there is a BT Sports app for my Roku the same as Sky Sports via it Now TV
@andygegg Couldn’t agree more, looks like its back to the drawing board for me at the end of my 12mths 🙁
I’m in the same group as the 52m who aren’t interested in football, so this is of absolutely no interest to me. Now, if they take F1 off Sky, as I refuse to pay £400 plus per year to watch 19 races (the other programming and over-advertising is also of no interest), then they may just make me sit up and take notice. Just because the media would have us believe that football is the new religion (witness the news about Ferguson taking precedence over kidnapped girls, murders and the like), doesn’t mean that the country is interested in nothing else but football and tennis.
My parents initially signed up for BT Sport as they are existing Infinity customer. They are now decided they will not use BT Sport and called to cancel. They are now being told they cannot cancel this product or Infinity product. Reason for this being BT claim they accepted a new 12 month contract for both BT Sport and Infinity.