BT Make Premium TV Sport Channels Available via YouTube and EE Mobile

Telecoms operator BT has announced that their premium BTSport TV channels will be streamed live via YouTube. On top of that any customers who take EE’s 4GEE pay monthly mobile plans will also be given access to the content, with details and pricing due to be revealed this summer.

The move follows TalkTalk’s announcement earlier this week that BTSport will be available to their TV subscribers, with all of this set to go live in time for the start of the next football season. BT no doubt hopes that this will help to make their premium sport content even more popular, with well over 5 million homes already subscribing to the channels (not to mention 27,000 commercial premises) via BT TV, the BT Sport app, Virgin Media or Sky’s Satellite TV.

Crucially we should point out that BT intends for the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League Finals to be streamed live and for FREE on YouTube or any of the other ways in which you can potentially receive the content (e.g. Freeview / BT TV channel 59, Virgin 548, Sky BT Sport Europe SD 414 etc.).

John Petter, CEO of BT Consumer, said:

“We’ve always said we wanted to give top quality sport back to the people and making the UEFA Champions League and Europa League finals free to everyone in the UK does this in a big way. We’re also bringing BT Sport to a new generation of younger sports fans who view their entertainment online, through social media and on their mobile devices. We plan to make these finals the most social sports broadcast ever, with lots of exciting content in the build-up and on the night across YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Vine”.

Stephen Nuttall, YouTube’s Senior Director in EMEA, said:

“At YouTube, we love football and we’re thrilled to give UK supporters more ways to watch BT Sport’s fantastic live coverage of these two massive games. Fans today expect quality content on every screen and this partnership enables just that. Football is YouTube’s biggest sport; we’re host to over 300 football clubs, 37 leagues and channels from BT Sport to UEFA.”

We note that BT uses the word “initially” when describing the expected launch of a new BTSport product on EE’s mobile platform, which suggests that the operator’s other subscribers (pay-as-you-go?) may also benefit in the future.