BT Sport

Availability

On 2 May 2013, BT Sport 1 and 2 were added to the BT TV EPG, followed by Sky the next day along with an on-screen message that the channel was coming soon. On Sky, the channels replaced BT's placeholders, Sailing 1 and 2. The BT-owned terrestrial feeds of Sky Sports 1 and 2, which were also used for Top Up TV, were dropped on 1 July in favour of BT Sport 1 and 2. The terrestrial feeds were only available to BT TV subscribers in non-BT Infinity enabled areas. These were removed from the platform in 2015. BT signed a wholesale deal with Virgin Media on 15 August 2013 bringing the channels free of charge to customers in the TV XL package. In Ireland BT Sport is bundled with eir Sports subscriptions. The deal means BT Sport 1, 2, 3 & ESPN is part of the eir Sports Pack in Ireland, along with eir Sports 1 and eir Sports 2.

An interactive service, BT Sport Extra, launched in September 2014, broadcasting additional content at selected times. One video stream was available at launch which expanded to seven in August 2015. BT Sport Extra can be accessed directly from the EPG on BT TV and from the red button on Sky and Virgin Media.

On 1 August 2015, BT launched three new channels - BT Sport Europe, a dedicated channel for its coverage of European football and rugby union including the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and rugby challenge and champions cups. BT Sport Showcase, a free-to-air channel which will show a number of sporting events unencrypted via Freeview, and BT Sport Ultra HD, the UK's first 4K television channel which will broadcast a number of events in ultra-high-definition exclusively on BT TV. On 4 August 2016, BT Sport Europe was renamed BT Sport 3 and BT Sport Ultra HD to BT Sport 4K UHD.

BT Sport 1 is currently offered for free for BT's broadband subscribers as 'BT Sport Lite', who may elect to view the channels via Sky, whether or not they have a Sky subscription, by having their viewing card activated. Customers who wish to view the remaining channels can subscribe to the 'BT Sport Pack' for £6 per month. BT also provide broadband subscribers access to the channels via the BT Sport online player and mobile app. Sky customers in the UK who subscribe to the 'BT Sport Pack' also have exclusive access to the AMC from BT channel.

Programming

Plans for the channels launch came about when it was announced in June 2012 that the broadcast rights to the Premier League from the 2013–14 to 2015–16 season were awarded to BT and BSkyB, outbidding existing broadcaster ESPN for the rights. BT showed 38 live matches from the Premier League each season, including 18 first pick matches, from the 2013/14 season to the end of the 2015/16 season.

In October 2012 BT announced it had also agreed deals to air Serie A, Ligue 1, Brasileirão and Major League Soccer, all of which were previously broadcast on ESPN, as well as Premiership Rugby.

In January 2013 BT announced they will also broadcast Women's Tennis Association matches from 21 tournaments.

On 25 February 2013, BT announced that it had acquired ESPN's UK channels and their sports broadcasting rights, including rights to the FA Cup, UEFA Europa League, Scottish Premier League, Bundesliga and NASCAR. This led to the shutting down of ESPN Classic and ESPN America in favour of the BT Sport channels.

On 7 May 2013, BT Sport acquired the rights to air Ultimate Fighting Championship events and taped programming in the UK and Ireland for three years, from 1 August. Two days later it was announced that BT Sport had acquired an exclusive five-year deal to broadcast MotoGP races from the 2014 season, including free practices and qualifying as well as full coverage of Moto2 and Moto3. BT Sport also broadcasts the FA WSL, A-League and programming from Red Bull Media House.

On 9 May 2013, BT announced that they had acquired the exclusive UK TV rights to MotoGP along with the Moto2 and Moto3 championships.

Later in May BT Sport acquired rights to the Football Conference for two years with 25-30 live games a season, including the end-of-season play offs.

On 9 November 2013, BT announced a £897 million deal with UEFA to broadcast the Champions League and Europa League exclusively on BT Sport from the 2015–16 season for three years. The deal will end two decades of the competition being broadcast free-to-air on ITV, although BT stated that the finals of both competitions and at least one match per season involving each participating British team would still be broadcast free-to-air.

In January 2014, it was reported that BT Sport had acquired the rights to broadcast the World Rally Championship for the 2014 season.

Football coverage

BT Sport currently has the rights to show 76 live Premier League matches (around 2 games a weekend) from the 2016/17 - 2018/19 seasons. Their packages (B and F) give BT the rights for 12 1st pick matches. The coverage for the current rights period see BT Sport showing 28 live matches on Saturday evenings at 5:30pm, and 28 on Sunday at 12:00pm. A further 6 live matches will be broadcast in midweek rounds and another 8 matches are spread across Saturday 12:30pm, Saturday 5:30pm or Sunday 12:00pm. The rights to the Premier League are shared with Sky Sports who have 126 live matches and BBC Sport who have highlights on Match of the Day. Jake Humphrey and Darren Fletcher are the main presenters of Football on BT Sport, hosting action from Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Europa League. The main studio pundits include Paul Scholes, Lee Dixon, Graeme Le Saux, Kevin Keegan, Clive Allen, Richard Dunne, Chris Sutton and Dean Saunders. While Peter Drury and John Murray are the main match commentators. Co-commentators include Nigel Winterburn and Neville Southall. Des Kelly is the main touchline reporter.

BT Sport Score is a weekly television programme broadcast on BT Sport during the football season. The programme updates viewers on the progress of association football games in the United Kingdom on Saturday afternoons between 3pm and 5pm.

BT Sport has exclusive live coverage of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League from 2015 until 2018. Gary Lineker fronts all of the Champions League action with Jake Humphrey, Lynsey Hipgrave and Matt Smith also presenting coverage. James Richardson hosts the Goals Show every Champions League matchday which keeps viewers up to date of all the scores and they can watch every goal go in live. Pundits include Julien Laurens, Raphael Honigstein, James Horncastle and Andy Brassell.

In May 2016, BT announced that they will stream the 2016 UEFA Champions League and 2016 UEFA Europa League finals live on YouTube for free, as well as showing them on BT Sport Europe and BT Sport Showcase.

BT have rights to the Scottish Premiership with 30 live games per season. Darrell Currie presents coverage of Scottish football with Derek Rae and Chris Sutton as commentators. Stephen Craigan and Mark Guidi complete the Scottish football coverage line-up. The rights is shared with Sky Sports and BBC Alba, who also have 30 and 3 live games per season respectively with highlights of the SPFL on BBC Scotland.

BT Sport also have exclusive rights to show the National League with Matt Smith hosting 30 live games per season along with coverage of the Play-Offs and the Play-Off Final live from Wembley.

BT Sport also shows live matches from Italy's Serie A, Germany's Bundesliga, France's Ligue 1, Portugal's Liga NOS and Australia's A-League. Paul Dempsey and James Richardson are hosts of foreign football coverage on BT Sport. Pundits have included Julien Laurens, Raphael Honigstein, James Horncastle and Andy Brassell.

Rugby union coverage

BT Sport has exclusive live rights to the Aviva Premiership and Anglo-Welsh Cup and shares live coverage of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup with Sky Sports. The original Aviva Premiership coverage deal ran until the 2016/17 season and allowed BT Sport to broadcast up to 69 live games per season. The Aviva Premiership's viewing figures rose by 40% in TV audiences in its first season with BT Sport. A new deal was signed in March 2015 to cover the Aviva Premiership until 2021 covering up to 80 matches a season. Craig Doyle is the main presenter of the coverage whilst Lawrence Dallaglio acts as the main match analyst. Doyle and Dallaglio present a review of the weekend's action after the last live game of the weekend every Sunday afternoon. Sarra Elgan and Martin Bayfield also present live action whilst further reporting comes from Tim Cocker and Chris Hollins. Austin Healey, Brian O'Driscoll, Ben Kay and Ugo Monye provide further punditry and co-commentary. BT Sport usually have one forward and one back acting as co-commentators on every match so one of Dallagio or Kay, along with one of Healey, Monye or O'Driscoll join Nick Mullins or Alastair Eykyn in the commentary box. Occasionally guest pundits and guest co-commentators are used.

Cricket Coverage

In August 2015, it was announced that BT Sport had claimed the rights for Australia's home matches for five years starting in the Australian 2016-17 season. This means that BT will show the Ashes Clash between England and Australia in 2017-18 with the deal also including Big Bash League fixtures as well as the Women's Ashes and Women's T20 Big Bash League.

Tennis coverage

In January 2013, BT Sport signed a deal with the WTA to show 21 live tournaments from the women's tennis tour. The coverage can consist of up to 800 live hours of coverage every year until 2016, each season ending with the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships. Coverage is presented by Lynsey Hipgrave with Martina Navratilova. Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli, Anne Keothavong, David Mercer, Nick Mullins, Sam Smith and Alastair Eykyn are the commentators.

Motorsport coverage

BT Sport has rights to numerous British, European, American and global motorsport series both in live and highlights form.

MotoGP is BT Sport's flagship motorsports event and in addition to the main MotoGP event, BT shows the Moto2, Moto3, Red Bull Rookies and CEV Repsol championships. Suzi Perry, Craig Doyle and Gavin Emmett hosts alongside pundits Jeremy McWilliams, Colin Edwards, James Toseland and Neil Hodgson. Commentary is provided by Keith Huewen and Julian Ryder with additional commentary from Colin Edwards, James Toseland, Gavin Emmett and Neil Hodgson during practice and qualifying. BT also produces a highlights programme which is broadcast on ITV4 on the Monday evening following the race. Gavin Emmett, former World Feed commentator, would take up the role of BT Sport's MotoGP reporter. Iwan Thomas hosted an analysis show called Chequered Flag aired after the MotoGP race has finished.

IndyCar Series coverage on BT Sport is just world feed pictures and commentary usually from either ABC or NBC Sports. For ABC as of 2014, Allen Bestwick is the lap-by-lap commentator while former IndyCar drivers Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever serve as colour commentators. Then for NBC Sports Leigh Diffey is the lap-by-lap commentator with the other commentators being Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy

Other live series include the World Rally Championship, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters and the Australian Supercars Championship where the world feed is taken directly from the host broadcaster. For World Series by Renault, BT Sport take world feed images but produce their own commentary, usually from Ben Evans and a journalist or racing driver. Highlights packages are also shown on BT Sport for series such as BRDC Formula 4 Championship, FIA European Formula Three Championship and the British Formula Three Championship.

American sports

BT Sport shows extensive coverage of American sports, including Major League Baseball, NBA, American College Sports, Major League Lacrosse, and X Games. Also ESPN-produced American sports magazines, such as College Gameday and Baseball Tonight, are shown, often live. The majority of American sports coverage is broadcast on BT Sport ESPN apart from the NBA which is usually shown on one of the main channels.

Magazine shows

Classic sport

BT Sport's weekday daytime schedules often include sporting action from yesteryear. Football features heavily and includes league matches from the 1970s and 1980s from both the ITV Sport and the BBC's Match of the Day archives. Also featured are FA Cup matches from the 1970s to the present day and UEFA Champions League matches. Other sporting action includes boxing matches from the ESPN archives as well as MotoGP races and BDO Darts