TIDMBT.A
RNS Number : 4689Z
BT Group PLC
15 December 2017
This announcement contains inside information.
December 15, 2017
BT AND SKY AGREE SUPPLY OF MARKET-LEADING TV CHANNELS ON EACH
OTHER'S PLATFORMS
BT TV customers will be able to sign up for all of NOW TV's top
quality content, including Sky Sports and Sky Atlantic
BT today announced a multi-year agency deal for BT to market and
sell Sky's NOW TV service to BT TV customers. NOW TV offers Sky's
most popular content, including Sky Sports, Sky Cinema and the Sky
Atlantic channel.
Sky will make the full NOW TV service available on BT TV's set
top box and BT will be able to sell subscriptions to NOW TV's great
passes directly to BT customers.
BT customers will be able to watch the Sky content seamlessly as
an integrated part of the BT TV platform.
At the same time, BT has agreed to wholesale its BT Sport
channels to Sky, allowing Sky to sell these channels directly to
Sky satellite customers. The BT Sport channels include exclusively
live UEFA Champions League and Premier League football. This will
mean that satellite customers will be able to buy BT Sport from Sky
as well as from BT.
The agreement brings to a successful conclusion negotiations
that have been on and off for a number of years.
Gavin Patterson, chief executive of BT, said: "This is an
important day for BT and for our customers, who will be able to
enjoy a whole range of Sky's sport and entertainment programming on
their BT TV boxes.
"This is the next logical step for our TV and content strategy.
Having built up an outstanding portfolio of exclusive sports rights
and a loyal base of customers, we feel that now is the right time
to broaden the ways in which we distribute BT Sport.
"This agreement fits with our strategic goal of being the best
provider in the UK of converged network services, and adding NOW TV
boosts our growing roster of outstanding content from the likes of
Netflix, great pay channels like AMC and all the major catch-up
services."
The agreement demonstrates the importance that BT places on
sport as a key offering to its customers, and enables BT Sport to
reach a new audience.
Currently, BT TV customers can only buy Sky Sports Main Event as
a bolt-on to their TV service for GBP27.50 per month, and are not
able to choose from the full range of Sky Sports channels. As a
result of this agreement, BT TV customers will be able to take all
eleven Sky Sports channels, as well as a NOW TV Entertainment pass
offering great channels including Sky Living, Sky One and Sky
Atlantic, which also offers box sets including Game of Thrones, Big
Little Lies and Billions. BT customers will be able to buy all of
this in competitively priced bundles with BT TV.
It is expected that these new services will be available to
customers from early 2019.
Ends
The person responsible for making this announcement is Dan Fitz,
BT's Company Secretary.
Notes to editors
- BT Sport launched in 2013 and now has well over 5m customers,
watching on BT TV, the Sky satellite platform and Virgin Media, via
a wholesale deal.
- The BT Sport channels are also available in around 30,000 pubs and clubs that pay commercial subscriptions.
- BT Sport's major exclusively live rights include all of the
UEFA Champions League and Europa League until 2021, 42 Premier
League games a season, the current Ashes series in Australia, the
Aviva Premiership and European Rugby Champions Cup.
- The channels also have live rights for FA Cup, Scottish
Professional Football League, BoxNation, Moto GP, women's
tennis.
- BT TV is the company's TV service, which is delivered to 1.8m
customers via the YouView set top box and the BT TV App.
- BT TV was the first in the UK to launch Netflix in Ultra High
Definition in 2014 and BT Sport customers have been able to watch
football in UHD since the start of the 2015/16 season.
- As retail agent, BT will sell NowTV on Sky's behalf, offering
BT TV customers access to NowTV's most popular content including
Sky Atlantic, Sky One, Sky Living, Sky Sports and Sky Cinema.
Enquiries
Press office:
Dan White Tel: 020 7356 5369
Investor relations:
Mark Lidiard Tel: 020 7356 4909
About BT
BT's purpose is to use the power of communications to make a
better world. It is one of the world's leading providers of
communications services and solutions, serving customers in 180
countries. Its principal activities include the provision of
networked IT services globally; local, national and international
telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at
work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and
services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services. BT
consists of six customer-facing lines of business: Consumer, EE,
Business and Public Sector, Global Services, Wholesale and
Ventures, and Openreach.
For the year ended 31 March 2017, BT Group's reported revenue
was GBP24,062m with reported profit before taxation of
GBP2,354m.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets
of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in
London and New York.
For more information, visit www.btplc.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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