Ways to watch BT Sport and the cost

Inspired by the YouView thread I thought there might be some members that might appreciate a brief run down of what the options are to subscribe to the BT Sport channels.

Satellite
BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN will be available all together for £12 per month in standard definition and £15 per month in high definition. Whether or not you subscribe to Sky is irrelevant because BT are retailing this channel themselves on the platform in a similar way to other niche channels. All you need is a viewing card and Sky box.

If you have broadband from BT then you can get the standard definition channels for free and the high definition channels for £3 per month if you simply renew your BT broadband product for another 12 months, or take out a new broadband contract for 12 months. As an added incentive, if you commit before 1st August you also get the HD channels for free for a year.

It appears that BT Sport is being offered with a rolling 30 days cancellation notice period for those without BT broadband. The other thing to note is that there is no multi-room option for these channels either.

Cable
No details have been released yet about carriage on Virgin Media, Wright Fibre or Small World. This doesn’t mean that the three BT Sport channels won’t be available on cable, just that no deals have been done yet with the cable companies. BT and Virgin have both publicly said they are in talks however.

TalkTalk TV
No details have been released about carriage on TalkTalk TV. BT have said that they are prepared to do a deal with TalkTalk TV (although I can’t see anything from TalkTalk TV to say they are interested in the channels). Even though the BT Sport channels will be available to BT YouView box subscribers they won’t be available on TalkTalk TV YouView boxes – for the time being at least.

BT Vision/BT TV
These channels will be supplied free of charge in standard definition as long as you maintain your broadband subscription with BT, and commit to a 12 month renewal of your broadband contract. The £3 per month HD fee will be waived if you subscribe/renewal before 1st August.

Now this is where things have potential to get confusing….

These channels will be delivered by broadband if you are on BT Infinity.

If you don’t have BT Infinity then BT Sport 1 and BT Sport 2 will be provided via DTT. HD versions of these channels and ESPN will not be available.

If you have BT YouView and don’t have BT Infinity it is not possible to view BT Sport 1 and BT Sport 2 via DTT as the YouView box doesn’t have any conditional access system, nor does it have a CAM slot.

If you have BT Infinity and a YouView box, but a YouView box NOT supplied by BT (i.e. you bought it from a shop or through TalkTalk) then these channels are also not available. If you have BT Infinity and YouView box bought from a retailer, BT have now announced that they’ll make BT Sport available on these boxes. It will not be available on TalkTalk YouView boxes.

The internet
If you have an internet connection of any type, then as long as it is 400kbps or faster you can subscribe to BT Sport through the BT Sport online player. All you need is a BT broadband subscription, which has to be renewed for another 12 months. Four devices can have access to the online player, although only two are able to stream at any one time. If you have BT broadband and get BT Sport through satellite or BT Vision/BT TV you can still use the online player too.

Top Up TV/DTT
Sky Sports 1 & 2 will cease to be available on DTT by the end of July, to be replaced by BT Sport 1 and BT Sport 2. No deal is yet in place between BT and Top Up TV, although Top Up TV are telling customers they are in negotiations with BT.

Anyway… hope this helps/is of interest!