Is it “Goal!” for BT or “handball” from Sky Sport?

Speak the word "soccer" softly – conversations worldwide all turn right now on the revelations, confessions, and probable corrupt networks of influence and cash within FIFA and its global stranglehold on the now-unbeautiful game. Possible networks remain to be unveiled and it all seems to be about money. It is – all the way down to the local Saturday afternoon match near the pub. So much so that in a broadcasting rights battle between BT Group Plc against Sky Sport, BT has emerged with the capacity to launch new sports-orientated channels from August. But, sceptics ask, will it get the viewers? Peter Wilhelm.

By Amy Thomson

(Bloomberg) –BT Group Plc will start charging for its sport channels for the first time as it seeks to recoup some of the billions it's spent in broadcast rights. It is to offer premium packages for 5 pounds ($7.64) a month to broadband subscribers, anchored by its exclusive rights to the Champions League and Europa League soccer games, the company said in London Tuesday. A new channel that features the two leagues will start broadcasting on August 1.

In addition to recovering some of the money it has spent building up its portfolio of soccer, rugby, ultimate fighting, and other rights, BT is raising the profile of the channels – which means accentuating its rivalry with Sky Plc.

Accordingly, sports celebrities are being brought into the BT broadcast fold. They include former Liverpool soccer club captain Steven Gerrard who will present the Champions League games, alongside Rio Ferdinand, who played for England's national soccer team dozens of times — and Gary Lineker, who holds the country's record for goals scored in World Cup finals.

"The arrival of BT Sport hasn't just shaken things up a bit, we have grown and re-energised," said John Petter, chief executive officer of BT's consumer business. "That competition has been good for everyone, but most of all it has been good for sports fans."

BT has won exclusive rights to broadcast Champions League and Europa League soccer matches for three years starting in the 2015-2016 season. An "ultra-high-definition" channel, which will work with 4k resolution TVs, will also be available in August, though the UK's biggest broadband provider declined to comment on how much it would charge.

A scaled-down channel, which will include England's Premier League soccer games, will remain free to broadband subscribers. Customers who sign up for BT's TV service, which includes live TV, video-on-demand, and streaming services like Netflix, will also get the premium sport channels free, tying the two offers together.

Sky said on June 8 that even though the Champions League, an annual competition among Europe's top soccer clubs, would move to its competitor BT "after many years on Sky Sports", customers would in any case rather watch local teams play. "It's the intense rivalry of our domestic competitions that matters most to customers," Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports, said on the company blog. "Over the last five seasons we have seen Champions League audiences fall 36 percent."

The two companies have been battling for viewers and content. BT bid against Sky for rights to show English Premier League soccer matches in 2012, in preparation for the BT sport channels' release about a year later. Since winning the rights, BT committed to spending about 2.6-billion pounds over three rounds of bidding for different packages of soccer broadcasting.

The TV channels have helped revitalise BT, the UK's former monopoly phone provider, which had been struggling with declining home phone lines.

The company has added a million consumer broadband subscriber lines since 2013, ending the last fiscal year with 7.7- million. BT has 5.2- million customers for BT sport, which include direct customers and subscribers on wholesale deals with other providers.

"BT Sport has created a big product in its own right. [But] BT TV is still languishing," said Macquarie Research analyst Guy Peddy. While the new channels were helpful for earnings, he said "it all comes down to the volume of people that sign up. It's a volume thing rather than a pricing thing."

BT has also agreed to buy EE Ltd, the country's biggest mobile-phone carrier, which will give it control of the biggest landline and wireless networks in the UK.