The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsThe rise of BT Sports in August 2013 has got sports fans thinking about whether this channel has what it takes to be the new home of sports. Sky Sports (established in 1990) has been the ‘Home of Sports’ near the end of the 20th century and for all of the 21st century, until now where BT Sports have earned enough renown to be worthy challengers.
The question remains, who is leading the race to be the main sports channel?
BT Sports started it’s opening year very strongly, through winning rights to broadcast the FA Cup (shared with BBC), German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1, Italian Serie A, UEFA Europa League (shared with ITV), Premiership Rugby, Ultimate Fighting Championship a fair share of Premier League matches and more. With certain significant football and rugby fixtures secured by BT Sports, many sport viewers began to wonder whether Sky Sports could retain the right to use the slogan ‘Your home of sports,’ seeing as how BT Sports won certain rights that Sky Sports would have certainly aired in the past.
Despite the rivalry affecting broadcasting rights for Sky Sports, the experienced sports channel still had the majority of rights in 2013 and 2014, including the rights to the Capital One Cup, Formula 1, The Football League, La Liga, the major Golf events and the major cricket events.
The major turning point came near the end of 2013, where BT Sports announced an £897 million deal to have exclusivity for the European tournaments, the UEFA Champions League and Europa League both until 2018. For Sky Sports customers very keen on the UEFA Champions League, this could prove a major turning point for the ‘Home of Sports’ title, seeing as how Sky no longer has any rights to broadcast Europe’s most famous competition in which the final attracts viewers by the hundred millions.
With major sporting competitions such as European football, 38 Premier League games, 80 Aviva Premiership games, NBA, Friday Night Fights and MotoGP secured under BT Sports belt, many loyal viewers of Sky Sports are beginning to strongly consider purchasing BT Sports subscription as well, as BT Sports has many crucial elements that Sky Sports is missing. Sky Sports still however hold firm to the widest range of sports, including 116 Premier League matches (alone worth £5 billion), the Capital One Cup, the England football team’s games, Formula 1, Darts, Golf, Athletics and Tennis which have all had a major contribution to help Sky Sport maintain its title.
The question arises is to whether BT Sports holding such crucial missing assets of Sky Sports means that viewers would choose BT over Sky. With very popular competitions under BT Sports grasp which Sky Sports used to have, viewers may be likely to shift their loyalty based on quality rather than quantity. BT Sports may not have such a vast range, however it has already done tremendously and still has stores of potential.
If BT Sports win more exclusivity for popular sporting competitions, would the increasing stronghold mean BT Sports receive more viewers than Sky Sports. Sky Sports at the moment are still the number 1 sports channel through income, however BT Sports still has many more years to flourish into what may be the new ‘Home of Sports.’
