Champions League football will cost fans extra £5 a month on BT

Football fans will need to pay to watch the Champions League after BT unveiled pricing for its first move into the traditional pay-television market.

In a direct challenge to Sky’s hold on the wallets of the sport’s fans, BT revealed that its channels would be free for its paying TV customers and £5 a month for its broadband customers.

BT will create a channel to broadcast games from the Europa and Champions Leagues — with the games broadcast simultaneously and viewers able to choose which they match they want to watch. Some matches will be available on a free-to-air channel as a taster for potential subscribers.

Delia Bushell, head of TV and sports, said the launch of the channels was as a big a moment for BT as when it launched its sports service three years ago.

“It adds up to a major new chapter for BT Sport,” she said. “For the first time, Europa and Champions League will be brought together. We intend to make the most of it.”

The company’s decision to charge customers to watch European football matches previously shown on Sky and ITV marks a shift in strategy, from using free bundled sports TV to defend its broadband business to generating revenues.

The move will be a test of BT’s ambitions in the pay-TV market, where it has failed to expand its customer base significantly even after the high-profile acquisition of Premier League football rights three years ago.

BT is seeking to recoup part of the £897m it paid for three years of Champions League rights, at a time when British audiences for the competition are fading because of a relative lack of success by Premier League clubs.

The company’s football coverage will be fronted by Gary Lineker, the former player, with new pundits including Steven Gerrard, the former Liverpool captain who is set to join Los Angeles Galaxy in the US. Its services will be revamped with a new TV box and high-definition 4k viewing.

BT’s broadcast of Premier League games will remain free for at least a year for existing broadband customers, so it is not discarding its lure for broadband customers yet.

Analysts at RBC Capital said BT could cover its costs and take a bite out of Sky’s pay-TV empire at the same time. BT and Sky have been locked in a battle over broadband customers, and the competition is moving to TV subscriptions.

A £5 monthly charge for Champions League games and the revenue from pubs and clubs could generate more than £250m per year, which would cover the costs of the Uefa rights acquisition and production, RBC said.

However, the pay-TV model is untested ground for the telecoms group, which is gambling that customers will pay for content separately for the first time. For some this will mean paying for two sets of football subscriptions — a smaller amount to watch a single football competition and a larger fee for Sky’s sports bundle.