Television broadcasters have noticed the audience’s inclination to own flexible services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, therefore BT will be launching a similar service for customers to watch Premier League and Champions League football without a contract. 

Commonly, viewers had to sign a contract with a TV station for a high price that would allow them to watch football and other shows. But BT will be offering another service that is similar to what consumers are used to – a flexible streaming service. 

Premiership Rugby, boxing and wrestling are some of BT’s portfolio of rights that the firm used to attract and get consumers to sign long-term deals with them for broadband, phone and TV services. 

The latest offer is a £25 per month pass that allows viewers to choose whether to pay for the service provided for the upcoming month or not. BT’s offer gives the audience a choice without forcing them to pay a large amount of money for a contract. 

An analyst from Ampere, a media consultancy, said “There is an increasing expectation in the market for flexibility, with long contract periods now off-putting to many consumers. It is also a nod to how competitive the market is getting.”

“Customers can sign up on a flexible monthly basis for the first time,” BT Consumer’s managing director of marketing, Pete Oliver said. He added, “Monthly pass forms part of BT’s ambition to offer BT Sport customers unrivalled choice and the highest-quality broadcasts on even more devices and platforms.”

The announcement came after 10 Premier League games were livestreamed by Amazon and made accessible to Amazon Prime’s members. The service costs £7.99 a month or £79 a year. New records were broken for most signups since its launch on the two days when the games were to be livestreamed, Amazon stated.  

In addition, pay-as-you-go services have been offered by Sky for the past 7 years, charging £33.99 a month. 

Richard Broughton, Ampere’s analyst said, “Given the high price of sports rights, it is a risky bet. Sky’s Now TV has mitigated the risk of contract customers moving to a ‘dip in and dip out’ culture by pricing the sports pass quite high in recognition that consumers have to pay for flexibility.”

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