BT Group has unveiled the pricing structure for its internet TV sports service, a channel the telecoms group hopes will undercut BSkyB, its pay-TV rival.

For £12 a month, subscribers to BT Vision Sport will be able to watch 46 live Barclays Premier League football matches next season.

Unlike with satellite and cable, subscriptions to BT Vision Sport can be taken on a month-by-month basis, but users of the service must already be signed up to BT broadband at a minimum cost of £17.99 a month.

Subscribers will also have to pay £90 for installation and connection of a set-top box, which feeds into a TV and gives users access to Freeview channels such as BBC 3 and More 4.

The BT service is being launched in partnership with Setanta, the Irish pay-TV operator that last year paid £392 million for the rights to a third of Premiership games until 2010.

It will also carry games from the Scottish Football League, US PGA golf and Magners League rugby.

BSkyB, which until the forthcoming season was the only company to hold the rights to air Premiership football, charges £34 a month for its Sports package, which also includes a 2MB broadband connection and free evening and weekend phone calls.

That package also offers a broader range of sports than BT's offering, including English Test cricket, and owns live rights to twice as many Premiership games as Setanta.

Sky, which is 39.1 per cent owned by News Corporation, parent company of Times Online, last year paid £1.3 billion for the rights to the bulk of Premiership football.

Of its 8.6 million TV subscribers, more than 6 million are signed up to its sports offerings, underscoring the importance of football for Sky's business.

BT hopes that its sports offering will boost take-up of its broadband services, which face competition from a host of rivals, including Sky and Carphone Warehouse, which have incorporated cheap internet access into their product bundles.

At present BT has 3.66 million broadband subscribers. It is targeting 2 million to 3 million Sports customers in the medium term.

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