BT has built on its Premier League and Rugby Premiership rights by signing deals with a number of international football leagues.
In June the company won the rights to show 38 live Barclays Premier League games per season for three years, including 18 of the best quality ‘first pick’ games.
Its latest deals include Italy’s Serie A, France’s La Ligue 1 and Major League Soccer in the US and the Brazilian Football Championship.
The acquisitions give the telecoms giant a slew of content to fill its upcoming sports channel, increasing its attractiveness both to customers and rival networks who BT hopes will pay to carry the channel.
Last month BT, which operates its own BT Vision TV service and is a shareholder in IPTV platform YouView, confirmed that Jake Humphrey will anchor its Barclays Premier League football coverage.
Commenting on the latest deals, Marc Watson, CEO of BT TV said: “As well as enjoying 38 games from the Barclays Premier League, football fans will be able to follow David Beckham and Thierry Henry in the MLS and witness whether the resurgent Juventus can withstand the challenge of the two Milan giants in Serie A. They’ll also be able to enjoy the talent on show in the French Ligue 1, where they will see the skills of stars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva.
“We believe this extra depth of live matches will help us in our aim to develop an absolutely cracking sports channel, with fantastic live action, across the top football leagues, plus rugby union and other sports to come. We’ve hired the best talent behind the camera to bring to viewers the first rate production that they’ve come to expect from a sports channel in the UK.”
