BT, Virgin Media Enter 3-Yr Wholesale Sport Deal - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Communications services provider BT Group Plc (BT, BT_A.L) and Virgin Media announced a three-year deal to ensure that Virgin Media TV's customers can have full access to the BT Sport TV channels. The agreement, which significantly boosts the number of homes that can watch BT Sport from this weekend, follows the news that over a million UK households are already equipped to watch the channels.

The wholesale deal, inked in advance of the start of the Barclays Premier League this weekend, would enable Virgin Media to offer BT Sport directly to its 3.8 million TV customers. It means BT Sport 1 and 2 are currently available across all the major TV platforms in the UK, including cable, satellite and DTT. Also, the channels are accessible through broadband.

The deal would enable Virgin Media to provide BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN to their XL TV customers as part of their packages, with no need for those customers to take any action, which means nearly three million households are ready to watch BT Sport in advance of the top tier main English football and rugby seasons commencing.

Further, this agreement enables Virgin Media to offer the channels as a standalone premium service to TV customers who do not take the XL pack. BT Sport would show 38 exclusively live football matches from the Barclays Premier League, including 18 of the 'top picks', for each of the next three seasons.