Customers who purchase their own YouView boxes and connect it a BT broadband connection can subscribe to the firm’s on demand content for £10 per month, £2.50 less than those receiving a free box as part of a bundle.
Or, if they prefer, they can sign up for a Pay As You Go version of the player without paying the £5 monthly fee the telco charges for those customers who receive a box.
The price difference in each product is likely to reflect a contribution to the subsidised boxes BT supplies.
Last month the company initially said the tens of thousands of customers who purchased YouView boxes from high street retailers will be unable to sports channels. It later backtracked and announced that a “technical solution” was being developed to enable retail boxes to stream the live channels.
YouView later confirmed it was working on a software update to enable this functionality.
In recent days the telco has updated its website to state:
“If you bought your YouView box from a high street retailer and not directly from BT, then BT Sport is not currently available on your TV. We are working on a solution to bring BT Sport to you.
“When BT Sport is available, you will need BT Infinity and a BT TV package from BT to watch it on YouView.”
When asked whether the discounted TV products currently offered to users of retail boxes would class as a BT TV package, a spokesperson for the company responded:
“If you want to get BT Sport on a retail YouView box (when it is available) you will need to take out a BT TV subscription starting at £5 a month and PAYG status will not count as a TV package.”
BT’s statement appears to contradict itself as the £5pm package merely provides access to the PAYG version of the BT Vision player.
If accurate, it means that while Sky TV customers – including Freesat From Sky users- who also have BT broadband will get free access to the channels via their Sky+ boxes, retail YouView customers will have to pay a minimum of £5pm in addition to their broadband subscription to access the same content.
All BT broadband customers will be able to get free online access to the channels via their PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet.