Letters to the editor – 21/08 – Sport competition, Best of Twitter
Sport competition
[Re: BT Sport has a mountain to climb in its bid to beat BSkyB, yesterday]
David Hellier raises some interesting points about how consumers are buying converged TV, broadband and telephony packages. However, he misses two main points: BT is not looking to topple Sky Sports, and Sky TV customers can get BT Sport for free. While we might be fighting Sky (and other companies) for broadband customers, there’s plenty of room for both companies to co-exist in the TV market. Sky customers don’t need to give up their Sky Sport to view BT Sport for free – they can view it via their Sky box by taking BT broadband. Healthy competition, after 20 years of Sky dominance and rising prices, is surely a good thing for football fans? There are 25m homes in the UK, but only 5m or so have a dedicated sports channel to date. We believe it’s because fans have been priced out of the market. Research shows 50 per cent of people want to watch sport on their TV, but less than half have been prepared to pay. The season ahead promises to be a great one for fans, with more than 5m households with BT broadband able to view Premier League football for free with BT Sport, rather than paying high prices elsewhere.
John Petter, managing director, BT Retail
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