BT Vision launches sports service

BT Vision has launched its own pay-as-you-go service offering coverage of the Premier League, called BT Vision Sport. The telecoms company is trying to take on Sky's dominance TV football market by allowing viewers to watch any of its 242 'near live' matches for £1.99 a game.

For £4 per month fans can gain access to all games on-demand from 10pm on match day, as well as 125 Football League and Carling Cup games from 24 hours after the final whistle. For £12 per month, BT will also offer 46 live Premier League games, 60 Scottish league matches, a selection of European League football and additional sports including boxing and the PGA golf tour.

The rights have been agreed through a deal with Setanta Sports, but BT has no rights to any Sky Sports football matches.

Non-BT customers will need to pay £17.99 a month for BT Broadband, and there is a £30 connection fee and £60 fee for engineer installation of the free V-Box set-top box.

Satellite giant Sky has responded to the news, by saying "nothing comes close to the excitement of watching it live."

A Sky spokesman said: "More than 6 million customers trust Sky Sports to bring them the best live action in football and a host of other sports. Next season, Sky Sports will offer more live Premiership football than ever before and, just as importantly, we’ll show the biggest head to head matches live. What’s more, Sky Sports will offer near-live coverage of the same 242 matches that BT will offer to its broadband subscribers, but without any extra costs."

"We’re confident that customers are smart enough to find the real value in this competitive marketplace," the Sky statement added.

Source: Digital Spy