BT has confirmed that its freemium channel BT Sport will remain free for another season. The 3-channel bouquet, BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN, will continue to be available free of charge to new and existing subscribers to BT Broadband customers.
Around five million homes now take BT Sport. Of the three million take the service directly from BT – either via satellite, BT TV or the BT Sport App alone – with the remainder taking the service via wholesale deals struck by BT. Many of these will be through Virgin Media where the channel is available as part of the cablenet’s big basic (XL) package.
John Petter, BT Consumer chief executive said: “Fans have been the winners with BT Sport. Millions of homes have enjoyed the very best sporting action for free. We said we would shake up the market and we have done just that.
BT has also announced that its BT TV service has finally reached one million subscribers, the majority of which take BT Sport. The IPTV/DTT hybrid was launched in December 2006.