Global Insight Perspective | |
Significance | BT has launched an improved offer for its flagship IP TV service, offering a combination of live and near-live football (soccer) content to a football-mad society. |
Implications | The new sports content will increase competition in the U.K. pay-TV market, adding BT to the ongoing tug-of-war between BSkyB and Virgin Media. |
Outlook | Given that BT is offering near-live and not-so-cute live matches, its service is hardly going to rock the boat for BSkyB and Virgin Media with their live coverage of the most-watchable football games. |
The U.K. fixed-line incumbent player, BT, has rejigged its IP TV service—BT Vision—with football (soccer) content in a bid to take on the dominant U.K. pay-TV players, the satellite pay-TV provider, BSkyB, and the cable provider, Virgin Media. In a statement yesterday, BT said it was launching BT Vision Sport, offering near-live coverage of the English Barclays Premier League for £4 (US$8.17) a month. Customers signing up to the new service will get access to 242 Premier League matches a few hours after the action plus another 125 games from the lower leagues. Customers can also watch each of the games on a pay-as-you-view basis for £1.99 per game. BT said it has also signed an agreement with the Ireland-based sports broadcaster, Setanta, for the latter's live Premier League games coverage. Customers could pay £9.99 for the 46 live Premier Leagues matches on show on Setanta or pay £12 in total for the Setanta live coverage and BT's near-live coverage.
BT's New IP TV Content Offers | ||
BT Vision Sport – “Pay Per View” Latest events… £1.99 per match 125 Football League and
| BT Vision Sport – “Standard” Latest Matches… 125 Football League and Carling Cup games (on demand from 24 hours after the day of the match) Classic Programming… £4 per month | BT Vision Sport – “Setanta Sports” Live sport…
£9.99 per month |
Source: BT | ||
Outlook and Implications
Although BT has made an audacious move towards boosting its IP TV service, the new content will not necessarily lead to a big boost in subscriber numbers for the BT Vision service. The U.K. pay-TV market is already crowded by the presence of BSkyB and Virgin Media, which both offer live football content for the most sought-after games. Between them, the two pay-TV giants have carved out the market and are locked in a tense battle over TV content. BT said it is launching a multi-million pound marketing campaign to promote the offer and has recruited some well-known football pundits to front the commentary on the games (see United Kingdom: 11 May 2007: BT Pours US$19.8 mil. Into BT Vision Advertising Push and 2 April 2007: BT Signs 5,000 TV Subscribers).
However, while the marketing campaign may help BT to nibble gradually into the grip of BSkyB and Virgin Media, its service falls materially short of the offer from its two more illustrious pay-TV rivals. For a start, the available pool of football enthusiasts willing and able to sign up for a football package is already low, given that many of them are already locked in long contracts with their existing providers. More importantly, though, offering near-live coverage and live coverage of the "less-watchable" content may not be enough to woo existing customers away from those locations where they obtain live content for the most interesting games.