BT is weighing up plans to bid for live football rights, it said yesterday, as it unveiled a deal with Setanta Sports, the Irish pay television broadcaster, to show live matches on its new television service.

The telecoms group is to show 46 live Premiership football matches as part of the Setanta deal. The tie-up will form the cornerstone of a special sports division of its television service BT Vision Sport.

The former monopoly also raised the prospect of bidding with Setanta in future auctions for the live Premiership rights. A spokesman said that the two players will “look at a deepening of our relationship”, with bidding for live rights in the next auction, in 2009, a “possibility”.

Setanta had already announced plans to make Premiership matches available through Freeview on a subscription basis. However, BT said that Vision customers — who will be able to watch the Setanta matches from next summer — would receive a better-value package because of its special tie-up.

The Setanta tie-up is one of 25 content deals negotiated by BT as it seeks to win over pay-television-free homes. Other partners range from film content providers, such as Dreamworks and Warner to Disney and National Geographic.

Vision customers, who must pay for a BT broadband connection and a £90 installation fee, will be able to download films and music-on-demand and pause and rewind live television. They will also be able to access more than 40 Freeview channels.

BT hopes that its service, under which customers can “pay as you go” for content instead of being locked into a monthly subscription, will prove a winning formula with the 14 million British homes that do not have pay television at present. Analysts are divided over whether this market exists.

BT Vision

BT Revenue: £19.5 billion
Profits: £2 billion
Customers: Television: target 3 million by 2010 Broadband: 3 million Telephone: 13 million
Content: 45 Freeview plus “on-demand” films, music, live sport and 80 hours recorded television
Cost: £90 installation, plus pay as you go, plus £18 broadband

SKY

SKY Revenue: £4.1 billion
Pre-tax profit: £798 million
Customers: Television: 8.25 million Broadband: 74,000 Telephone: 204,000
Content: more than 350 channels plus film and sports on demand.
Cost: subscription from £15 a month plus £40 one-off activiation fee

NTL

NTL Revenue: £2.5 billion
Loss: £419.9m* *Nine month figures
Customers: Telephone: 4.2 million TV: 3.3 million Broadband: 3 million Content: entertainment channels plus films and sports on demand
Cost: from £30 a month for broadband, telephone and basic package of television services

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