BT is set to give free access to its sports channel showing live Premier League football to a million subscribers who take its high-speed fibre optic broadband service.
The telecoms giant is expected to announce the plan on Friday when it unveils full-year figures likely to show profits up five per cent to £2.5billion for the year to March 31.
It is also set to reveal the price of BT Sport for subscribers who take the channel direct from BT rather than via rival broadcasters such as Sky.
City bank Nomura reckons this will be £10 a month.
However, BT and Sky are still in talks over whether BT Sport will be offered to Sky on a wholesale basis for Sky to sell on to its ten million-plus subscribers with a bundle of channels.
Alternatively, BT could offer the channel direct to Sky subscribers, who would then have to pay two subscriptions.
It currently has 770,000 subscribers to BT Vision, which will include BT Sport when it is launched later this year.
BT is reluctant to offer the rights to Sky wholesale as it fears losing its two million customers who watch Sky TV on BT’s broadband service.
The telecoms giant is reckoned to be investing £1billion in BT Sport in the next three years, having paid £738million to show 38 live Premier League games a season for three seasons.
Sky was forced to pay £2.28 billion for the right to 154 Premier League games, 40 per cent more than before BT tried but failed to secure the biggest package of games.
Both sides are said to be talking about providing Sky’s two main sports channels to BT to offer on YouView, the TV catch-up service, on a wholesale basis.
BT currently has a wholesale agreement with Sky to offer Sky Sports 1 and 2 on BT Vision, but not Sky’s other sports channels.
BT Sport will be fronted by ex-BBC presenter Jake Humphrey.
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We at Media Boy HQ has still to get news on if BT Sports will also launch on Virgin Media in August from anyone we know at Virgin Media. But we will keep you posted via this blog or on Cable Forum.