BT scores Web Premiership rights

BT has won rights to show Premiership football matches via broadband.

The matches will be shown 'near live', as BT optimistically terms it, at 10 p.m. on each match day.

The matches will be made available on a pay-per-view basis for users of BT's Vision service, without viewers needing to take out a subscription. However, only 242 of the 380 Premiership matches will be screened by BT.

BT Vision, to be launched later this year, is the telecom company's own IPTV offering. Subscribers to the service will be able to view digital terrestrial television, as well as premium content, on-demand through their broadband connections, using set-top boxes and traditional TVs.

BT won the bid to show the football in a joint move with BSkyB and will hold rights to the matches for three seasons until 2010.

Pricing for the matches has yet to be decided and the pair have not disclosed the terms of the deal. A BT spokesman said: "We're a start-up at the moment compared with Sky and their eight million customers. The proportions [of the deal] will reflect that."

Analyst Ovum predicts the service may appeal to casual footie fans but is unlikely to tempt any hardcore fans away from traditional sports broadcasters such as Sky.

BT Vision is expected to launch next month, although BT's rights to show the Premiership will start with the 2007 season.

For those who can't wait that long, the World Cup is also coming to a small screen -- a very small screen -- soon.

The 3 mobile network in Italy is looking to launch a mobile broadcast system, based on the DVB-H standard favoured by Nokia, in time for the start of the World Cup and has broadcasting rights to the tournament.