BT’s Sky Sports upgrade fails to reap dividends

BT's hard-fought battle for the right to broadcast Sky Sports 1 and 2 has reaped meagre rewards, apparently, after the company revealed less than 50,000 customers had subscribed to the two sports channels.

BT had hoped that Ofcom's landmark decision to grant them access to the channels, followed by a £6.3 million advertising spree, would give its BT Vision television service a boost in subscribers.

As it is, Vision has just 520,000 subscribers compared to Sky's 10 million.

Figures in the /Daily Telegraph/ show that BT spent £126 in advertising for every Sky Sports Customer it signed up since the start of the season in August.

BT chief executive Ian Livingston, admitted that only a "decent minority" of the 50,000 subscribers were new to BT Vision, with most being existing customers who had upgraded their service.

"This is a long-term thing," Livingston said. 

"10 per cent of BT Vision's [customer] base is now with Sky Sports, that's not terrible. It's pretty reasonable."

Read a full report at the Daily Telegraph. ·