Sports On Telly

News and updates on UK sports rights broadcasting deals and fixture scheduling.

TV

BT Sport extends Bundesliga rights deal

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bt_sport_1200BT Sport has extended its exclusive rights to show live German Bundesliga football until 2021.

The renewed deal starts in September 2017 and covers both the UK and Republic of Ireland. In addition to Bundesliga matches, BT Sport will have rights to the annual DFL Supercup matches, Bundesliga 2, plus previews and highlights shows.

Bundesliga sits alongside BT’s other football rights, which include matches from the Barclay’s Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Serie A in Italy and Ligue 1 in France.

Delia Bushell, Managing Director of BT TV & BT Sport, said: “We’re delighted to have won the tender for the next period of Bundesliga rights, enabling us to continue to be the home of the Bundesliga and German football until 2021.

“Combined with our excellent line up of exclusively live matches from the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Serie A and Ligue 1, the Bundesliga takes its place on BT Sport as one of the best European league competitions.

“Our customers have enjoyed watching German football on BT Sport since 2013 and will continue to be able to watch some of the most outstanding teams in Europe and best managers in the world, including Carlo Ancelotti.”

Jörg Daubitzer, managing director, DFL Sports Enterprises, said: “We’re delighted BT Sport will continue to offer the best of German football and bring some of the best entertainment and world class players to millions of fans and households across the UK and Ireland.

“BT Sport has and will continue to be held in high regard at the DFL and that is reflected in their high quality broadcasting and reporting. We are pleased to be able to continue this well established and successful partnership.”

Last week Sky announced it had secured the German broadcast rights to Bundesliga in a deal which also runs until 2021.

BT Sport extends Women’s Tennis Association broadcast deal

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BT Sport's tennis coverage includes commentary and analysis by Martina Navratilova
BT Sport’s tennis coverage includes commentary and analysis by Martina Navratilova

BT Sport will show 52 live Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments every year after extending its TV deal with the sport’s governing body.

Starting from January 2017, the three year deal will see an increase of 30 events per year from the current deal and includes the rights to broadcast tennis clips and WTA content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Simon Green, Head of BT Sport, said: “We are delighted to not only extend our deal with the WTA but also add even more women’s tennis to our calendar.

“From 2017 we will be broadcasting up to 156 events over a three year period and showcasing the best in women’s world tennis and British tennis too.

“We have been broadcasting elite tennis since 2013 and this reiterates our commitment to women’s sport.”

Steve Simon, WTA CEO, commented: “We’re delighted BT Sport will continue to offer the best of women’s tennis and bring our premium events and world-class players to millions of fans and households across the UK and Ireland.”

John Learing, Managing Director WTA Media, said BT’s “investment in our sport goes far beyond a rights fee. They are a true partner in every sense of the word.”

BT Sport to bring Champions League and Europa League finals to YouTube

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John Petter speaking at the launch of BT Sport Europe. Image: BT
John Petter speaking at the launch of BT Sport Europe. Image: BT
Football fans will be able to watch the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League finals live on YouTube after BT announced a new tie-up with the world’s largest video streaming site.

The broadcaster has exclusive UK rights to both contests which had previously been split between ITV and Sky.

As part of its deal for the competitions BT agreed to make a number of games, including both finals, available free to air and last summer launched a new Freeview channel on which it shows the matches.

Relatively low picture quality and the channel’s unavailability on Virgin Media and Sky is believed to be responsible for the low viewing figures achieved by some games. A number of media outlets have even claimed that UEFA bosses were unhappy with the competition’s reduced visibility.

However John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, today denied those suggestions and insisted that “both BT and UEFA are delighted with what we have achieved in our first year as the broadcaster of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.”

BT’s partnership with YouTube will mark the first time either competition has been available via the platform and will potentially allow millions more football fans to enjoy next week’s Liverpool clash with Sevilla next week and the UEFA Champions League Final between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid on May. 28th.

In addition, Sky and Virgin Media customers will also be able to watch the matches for free by tuning to channel 548 (Virgin) and 414 (Sky).

BT Sport subscribers will enjoy HD coverage as well as the broadcaster’s full red button and BT Sport App experience.

Announcing the expanded availability, John Petter said: “We’ve always said we wanted to give top quality sport back to the people and making the UEFA Champions League and Europa League finals free to everyone in the UK does this in a big way.

“We’re also bringing BT Sport to a new generation of younger sports fans who view their entertainment online, through social media and on their mobile devices. 

“We plan to make these finals the most social sports broadcast ever, with lots of exciting content in the build-up and on the night across YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Vine”.

Stephen Nuttall, YouTube’s Senior Director in EMEA commented: “At YouTube, we love football and we’re thrilled to give UK supporters more ways to watch BT Sport’s fantastic live coverage of these two massive games.

“Fans today expect quality content on every screen and this partnership enables just that. Football is YouTube’s biggest sport; we’re host to over 300 football clubs, 37 leagues and channels from BT Sport to UEFA.”

BT has also announced that its recently acquired mobile division, EE, will introduce a new BT Sport offer for its 4G customers in time for the start of the next football season. Full details and pricing will be revealed this summer.

The news comes just a day after the firm announced it would soon start selling BT Sport direct to customers of rival pay-TV operator TalkTalk.

Suzi Perry joins BT Sport’s motorsport team

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Image: BT
Image: BT
Suzi Perry has joined BT Sport’s presenter line-up in a deal which will see her present “a range of live sport and programming”, including the FIM MotoGP World Championship.

Perry is a familiar face to motorsport fans and will also feature in BT’s FIM Speedway and the World Rally Championships coverage as well as “other programming strands for the channel which will be announced in the coming weeks”.

The MotoGP season starts in Qatar on Thursday March 17 with BT Sport viewers enjoying exclusively live coverage of all 18 races until the season finale in November.

In addition, the channel will show all of the practice and qualifying sessions live, plus full coverage of the Moto2, Moto3 and MotoGP races across Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Perry, said: “I’m really excited to be joining BT Sport and working with their tremendous team. Motorsport continues to be massive in the UK and I can’t wait to bring BT Sport viewers all of the action from in front of the camera.”

Simon Green, head of BT Sport, added: “Suzi is an extremely popular and well respected TV presenter and I’m delighted she is joining our team. 

“Our viewers will really benefit from her vast motorsport knowledge and experience across our growing portfolio of motorsport.”

David Haye’s comeback fight to air on UKTV’s Dave

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Haye_De_Mori_O2UKTV has made a bold move into sports broadcasting after signing up the exclusive UK rights for former boxing world champion David Haye’s long-awaited comeback fight.

The match will be shown on the broadcaster’s flagship free-to-air entertainment channel, Dave, live from the O2 on Saturday 16 January at 9pm.
 
Haye, the former world champion in two different weight categories, is returning to professional boxing with a heavyweight bout against Australia’s Mark De Mori.

The comeback fight will be his first since defeating Dereck Chisora at Upton Park over three years ago and sees Haye take on a top 10 WBA ranked heavyweight in De Mori, who boasts a record of 30 wins (26 KOs), and only one defeat, since turning pro in 2004.

De Mori is undefeated since September 2004 and most recently claimed a first round knock-out of Germany’s Marcel Zeller in October. 
 
In addition to the live match, Dave will also show a special half-hour preview show the night before.

The channel’s two hour live fight coverage will include highlights from the day’s boxing at the O2, live studio discussions plus all the action from the ringside.

UKTV’s Richard Watsham said: “We are quickly establishing UKTV as a network able to handle attention grabbing live events, from the Python’s last ever performance – Monty Python Live (Mostly) for Gold through Really’s Halloween spectacular Most Haunted Live to Dave’s ratings success, the Red Bull Soapbox Race.

“Our ambition continues to grow in terms of the variety and quality of our programming and appointment to view TV remains at the top of our wish list.”
 
Steve North, general manager of Dave, added: “We are increasingly stretching our offering to Dave viewers, bringing them programmes which tap into the news agenda, such as last year’s election special The Pub Landlord vs Nigel Farage. 

“I’m thrilled to be giving our viewers a ringside seat to this hotly-anticipated boxing match and, with Dave’s own spin on the event, helping to show the sport in a brand new light.”