The new Premier League campaign coverage on BT sports starts with the match involving Manchester United and Swansea at Old Trafford. BT emerged as the major contender for Sky Sports in the UK sports television business. Sky Sports has been the number one channel when it came to watching Premier League action, but last season witnessed a major shift in power. BT secured access to most of the live games featuring top clubs in the second half of the campaign. This was primarily because Sky Sports decided to take up most of their allotted number of matches in the first half of the season.
The battle between the duo is set to get intense even more this campaign. BT will be telecasting the Champions League matches shortly after having won the rights to do so by paying a record £ 800 million per season for the next three years. Sky continues to be the dominant force within the Premier League after having spent just over £ 2 billion for showing 116 live matches per season. BT, in comparison, paid around £ 750 million has less than half the number of live matches to choose from. Sky have also been spending extremely high on pundits and marketing.
They recently came out with a dedicated channel for European football. Chelsea will be extremely disappointed from the options chosen by both BT and Sky Sports in the first few weeks of the season. They feature very less compared to the other top clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United, and Manchester City. Jose Mourinho’s team, however, are one of the favourites to finish at the top towards the end of the season after having spent a lot of money on experienced players like Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas.
The new Premier league season kicks off in the second week of August.
