BT has claimed to have overtaken Sky in the number of UK pubs subscribed to its sports channels.
According to a survey of 1835 pubs conducted by Evalueserve/Amethist, the BT Sport and ESPN channels are now in 30% of pubs, ahead of Sky’s portfolio of channels by 1%.
Pubs can add a BT Sport subscription to their existing Sky box or, if they don’t currently have a Sky subscription, have a free box installation carried out by BT. Prices start at £62 per month.
Bruce Cuthbert, Director Commercial Customers, said: “For BT Sport to have become an established feature of so many businesses in just 15 months is a tremendous achievement and reflects our underlying desire to show premium sports without the premium price.
“To overtake Sky who have been in this market for 20 years, in our second season, is astonishing.”
“Pubs and hotels up and down the country that were previously priced out of the market are now able to offer their customers access to some of the best live sporting action, without having to change their core customer offer.
“From August 2015, BT Sport will offer exclusively live midweek, top flight football action from the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, which will help our customers drive even more business throughout the week.”