BT Sport has announced a proposed partnership with Eurosport (Stu Forster/PA)
(Picture: PA Archive)IT’s not so long since BT and Sky were sworn enemies. When BT Sport was launched back in 2013 the anger in Rupert Murdoch-land was palpable.
The vibe went something like this: Those guys who can’t get our internet right are getting into football? Football is ours!
Murdoch was probably more pragmatic about this stuff than his troops, and since he sold Sky to Comcast in 2018, the new owners have seen BT more as partner than rival.
The seeming ease with which BT and Sky signed a new 10-year channel sharing deal today speaks to that.
This agreement was overshadowed by BT’s launch of a joint venture with Discovery, but both deals tell us the same thing.
Which is that media companies might fight tooth and nail over subscriptions and internet connections, but when it comes to content they realise it is pragmatic to share resources.
In the UK, BT, ITV, the BBC and the rest are in a scrap for eyeballs with Netflix, Amazon and Facebook, seriously moneyed players who always seem willing to look at what the opposition is spending, then double it and wait.
So the BT/Discovery link up looks sensible and maybe even exciting.
One problem for BT and the others must be the cost-of-living issue. With bills for everything on the way up some families might decide to cut back on internet connections and fancy TV. Some might have no choice in the matter.
The assumption from BT has been that ultra-fast internet, especially in the age of Covid, has become a necessity. Moreover, that once you get super speedy broadband, you never go back.
This might be the year when we find out whether that is truly so.
