BT lands exclusive UK television rights to show live rugby union beating Sky and ESPN

BT has made further inroads into live TV sport, signing a £152m deal for the exclusive UK rights to Aviva Premiership rugby union, which is currently broadcast by rivals BSkyB and ESPN.

The deal will see up to 69 live Aviva Premiership matches per season shown exclusively by BT Vision from next year, when the telecoms company will also begin broadcasting live Premier League football for the first time.

Under the deal with Premership Rugby, the umbrella organisation of the Aviva Premiership Rugby clubs, BT will also have live broadcast rights to the JP Morgan Asset Management Sevens competition from the 2013-14 season and any future European games featuring Aviva Premiership clubs from 2014-15.

The announcement comes just three months after BT won the rights for 32 Premier League games per season for three years from 2012/13. The telecoms giant paid a bumper £738m for the package, which it will put out to tender for production later this year.

BT, which owns the BT Vision broadband subscription service, has already said it plans to launch a sports channel to broadcast live Premier League matches.

The company is in early stage talks with ITV and others about a potential partnership to produce its Premier League coverage.

BT said it would look to distribute its live rugby coverage to a variety of platforms, as with its Premier League rights.

Mark McCafferty, chief executive of Premiership Rugby, described the deal as game-changing for the sport.

Marc Watson, BT Vision chief executive, added: "BT is serious about sport and this deal means we will be offering the very best rugby action alongside some of the most thrilling football matches from the Premier League. That is a winning combination and one that will appeal to fans of both sports."
source: guardian.co.uk/media/2012/sep/12/bt-tv-rights-live-rugby

Sky Sports - new season of Sports advert campaign

BSkyB has struck back at BT's attempt to lure sports fans to its TV service at heavily discounted prices, recruiting Eric Cantona for one of its biggest advertising campaigns of the year.

The "no compromise" campaign, which starts with TV advertising breaking today, features Cantona appearing to walk right through famous moments in sport such as Liverpool's comeback to win the Champions League final against AC Milan in 2005.



"Anything can happen in sport," says Cantona at the end of the TV ad. "The only certainty is you'll get all of Sky Sports on Sky."

As rivals including BT and Virgin Media aim to break Sky's stranglehold on football subscribers, following Ofcom's order in March that the latter had to drop the wholesale rate it sells Sky Sports 1 and 2 to rivals, the satellite broadcaster is aiming to position its overall sports offering as the best in the market.

"You'll only get all of Sky Sports with Sky," runs a voiceover, which ends by pointing out that Sky offers four sports channels as well as Sky Sports News, which is becoming a premium subscription channel like the other Sky Sports services.

BSkyB's campaign comes weeks after BT launched a major TV and print campaign featuring footballers including Michael Owen and the actor Kris Marshall, who stars in the regular "BT Family" ads, offering Sky Sports 1 and 2 at a steep discount.

Sky's TV campaign, which will run across the channels including ITV1 and Channel 4, will be supported by a large-scale campaign of press, billboard and digital advertising from 19 July.

Four billboards attempt to drive home Sky's superiority over rivals with big pictures of Cantona and lines including "The unmissable should be just that", "Compromise is not an option" and "What's the point of greatness if you cannot watch it?"

"[Fans] don't want to miss a moment of the sports they love, which is why we believe customers will respond to the authenticity of Sky Sports, a brand which has won the trust of sports fans following over two decades of ground-breaking coverage," said David Murdin, Sky's director of marketing for sport and news.



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