Who are ya?: BT backs digital-powered plans for Champions League to quash Sky’s claims it has lost its sparkle
BT Sport is confident upcoming digital plans to make the Champions League more widely available will strike the back of the net with its TV offering and nix rival Sky Sport’s claim that the tournament is no longer the media powerhouse it once was.
The broadcaster’s defiance stems from today’s (9 June) announcement that all 351 matches from the UEFA Champions League and Europa League next season will be free to all customers of its TV service. It’s a calculated play to be as far removed from the subscription model pushed by Sky Sports as possible with BT hopeful the reach over revenue approach could open up the competitions, particularly the Champions League, to more casual fans.
The move will make the matches available in more than 5.2 million homes that currently have BT Sport and this figure is tipped to grow in the next quarter.
Digital will be core to bringing the matches to more fans with BT allowing every minute to be viewed live from its Sport app. Goals and flashpoints from every game can also be accessed at any time from the app through a new timeline feature that records events from multiple camera angles. The app dovetails with a new player on the broadcaster’s site that will be backed by in-game analysis through new tournament ad match homepages.
“We’ve made a big play of the digital arm [of our coverage], a BT spokesman told The Drum. “We think the Champions League is a great tournament and there’s nothing inherently wrong with it. It’s not any less popular.”
The value of Europe’s premier club competition was called into question earlier this week when Sky Sport’s chief Barney Francis claimed viewer interest was in freefall. In a blog post, he wrote that the matches accounted for just 2.5 per cent of Sky Sport’s viewing figures and claimed that the Premier League was seven times bigger.
It is perhaps not a surprising claim given that British teams haven’t been making the latter stages for the last three years. However, BT Sport, which shelled almost £1bn to lock both Sky and ITV out of the tournament, is adamant there is still a lot of love for the Champions League that just wasn’t mined properly.
“We wouldn’t say the Champions League was at a low,” said the spokesman.
“We were pretty surprised that Barney was making a virtue of the fact that they’ve driven down the viewing figures for the Champions League. They’ve had it and it’s gone down under their stewardship. [Sky] spent an enormous amount of money promoting the Champions League last year when they brought in David Beckham. Having one of the most famous people in football promote your coverage is not really the action of a company that didn’t think it was a big draw anymore.”
The comments are reflective of BT Sport’s own approach to drumming up interest ahead of next season, which have seen it rely on another heavy-hitter from the football world. Chelsea FC manager Jose Mourinho has been drafted in to head up early promotions for its Champions League coverage, while seasoned pundits Gary Lineker, Jake Humphrey and Rio Ferdinand will present the matches.
It paints a package hopeful of injecting some fresh impetus into advertising revenues from the Champions League in the UK, which some sports media experts observe had not been majorly affected by the performance of domestic clubs in recent years.
Kelly Williams, managing director of the consulting business at Sports Revolution, said the “reality” is that BT Sport will want to see much better success from the British teams in the Champions League but “I don’t doubt for a second that it will be the most premium product in their portfolio".
“It’s only going to increase revenue,” she continued. “There’s no way brands are going to stay away from advertising around the Champions League final, it’s one of the biggest events on the football calendar.”
Importantly, the return on investment on rights costs is not only calculated on advertising revenues but also in terms of broadband subscriptions and other strategic components which don’t have a straight calculation. It means that just because there has been a dip in audience, the strategic value of the Champions League has not been dented.
Esteve Calzada, chief executive of Prime Time Sport and former chief marketing and commercial officer at FC Barcelona, said: “I think the key factor to improve viewing figures and interest on the Champions League is to get English teams more successful in the competition and so happening on a regular basis. With no quarter finalists this season neither on Champions League nor in Europa League it’s difficult to keep decent level of interest in the domestic market.”
A big chunk of BT’s ambitions for the Pay-TV market rests on its Champions League offering, in the wake of the Premier League’s coverage tepid attempts. It is in stark contrast to the telecommunications firm’s broadband business, which has seen both revenue and profit swell over the last five quarters thanks in part to its sports properties.
“Our key strategy for BT Sport has been to grow revenue and profit for the consumer business,” said the BT spokesman. "[The Champions League] is the next stage of that plan. It’s where the focus is a bit more on getting more TV customers.”
Gaining more TV customers will be key to injecting more value into the sporting property at a time when it’s been called into question. While negotiations over ad slots won’t start until later on, the broadcaster is confident that the greater scope of its audience can attract demand, despite not having a terrestrial window like Sky had with ITV.