BT Sport Signs 10,000 Pubs And Clubs Before Premier League Kick Off

With just a day to go before the new Premier League season kicks off, BT Sport has announced that more than 10,000 pubs, clubs, betting shops, hotels and other commercial premises have signed up to its TV packages.

BT Sport is offering top flight sport including live Barclays Premier League and FA Cup football and Aviva Premiership rugby, at prices that massively undercut Sky.

BT Sport's package has proved to be extremely popular across a range of commercial markets including independent pubs and clubs, as well as pub chains, hotels, betting shops, and other premises.

The launch of the BT Sport Pack has introduced competition into the commercial TV sports market for the first time with a typical independent pub saving up to 76 per cent compared with the cost of Sky*.

BT Sport recently announced its first commercial contract in the gaming sector with the UK's largest independent bookmaker, Betfred. All three BT Sport channels will be available in all of Betfred's 1,370 bookmakers across the UK for the next three years.

The first Barclays Premier League game of the season, Liverpool v Stoke City at Anfield is live on BT Sport on Saturday August 17 at 12:45pm. Former Liverpool and Stoke striker Michael Owen will be there in his first Premier League outing as a co-commentator for BT Sport.

Bruce Cuthbert, director of Commercial Customers, BT Sport, said: "Pre-season has gone incredibly well for the BT Sport team. Signing up more than 10,000 commercial customers before a ball is kicked in the Premier League is a fantastic achievement. BT Sport is an affordable and exciting new service for pubs, clubs and their customers. Interest has been phenomenal and underlines the value, quality and broad appeal that we offer. We are particularly delighted that this includes brand new commercial customers for premium sports who have historically been unable to afford Sky's high prices."

"Our success in the commercial TV sports market adds to our achievements in the consumer area, where more than a million households are ready to enjoy BT Sport and where we have agreed a deal with Virgin Media to make BT Sport available to its 3.8 million TV customers."

BT research has shown that nearly half of Britain's 75,000 pubs and clubs are showing free-to-air sport only - that is almost one and a half times more than those who have Sky. Eighty eight per cent of independent pubs who do not have Sky say they would like to show Premier League football, but Sky is just too expensive**. BT believes its lower prices mean that more pubs are now able to afford premium sports.

BT Sport is available to all commercial premises including offices, golf clubs, sporting clubs, bookmakers and Corca registered clubs with prices starting from as little as £75 per month.

The BT Sport Pack includes BT's brand new channels BT Sport 1 and BT Sport 2, as well as ESPN, all available in both standard definition and high definition. There will be 38 live and exclusive football matches from the Barclays Premier League - including 18 "first pick" matches - and up to 69 live rugby matches from the Aviva Premiership where BT will be the sole and exclusive broadcaster.

BT Sport is offering more live football games from top leagues than anyone else. There will be hundreds of top flight live matches from football leagues around the world including Italy, Germany, France, Brazil and the USA. Live football from Scottish Premier League plus 10 Rangers matches, FA Cup ties and the Final and live coverage from the UEFA Europa League will also be shown.

The channels will also feature WTA women's tennis, action from the UFC, Moto GP, Women's Super League football, England Under-21 games, Australian 'A' league soccer and action from Red Bull Extreme Sports.

BT Sport is delivered via satellite technology, so that any business with Sky equipment just has to call BT to add BT Sport to their line-up. BT will also facilitate a third party standard installation for customers who do not already have Sky equipment on their premises, at no extra charge. There is no need for commercial premises to take BT broadband or BT Vision as the channels are delivered via satellite.

BT has set up a dedicated UK based call centre to help commercial customers with all of their BT Sport queries. Customers can find out more by calling 0800 678 1957 or visiting: www.btsportbusiness.com.

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Notes to editors:

*Based on an assumed average rateable value of a typical independent pub being £24,000. Based on current rate card for Sky and BT Sport, no special discounts applied.

** Based on quantitative research with 917 pubs and clubs conducted by Sweeney Pinedo in October 2012.

About BT:

BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2013, BT Group's reported revenue was £18,103m with reported profit before taxation of £2,315m.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.btplc.com