It had all seemed perfectly set up. No longer dealing with 10 million pop up adverts while scanning the internet for dodgy streams of sporting event's you wish to watch if you don't have a Sky or BT subscription.
After both broadcaster's announced a major content sharing agreement under which both providers will sell their channels on each others' platforms, it soon became apparent that Ireland was to be excluded from the offer.
So, gone are all the potential perks that this offer seemed destined to deliver.
Under the deal, Sky will gain access to BT Sport content, including Premier League, Champions League and Europa League football, which it can offer through a single Sky subscription.
BT subscribers will also get access to Sky Atlantic which airs programme's like Game of Thrones. They will also get Sky’s entertainment channels including Sky Living, Sky One and Sky Cinema by adding the Now TV streaming service to BT set top boxes from 2019. BT will sell Now TV subscription passes, which allows customers to watch Sky programmes without a monthly subscription.
Gavin Patterson, the chief executive of BT, released a statement regarding the news,
This is an important day for BT and for our customers, who will be able to enjoy a whole range of Sky’s sport and entertainment programming on their BT TV boxes.
This is the next logical step for our TV and content strategy. Having built up an outstanding portfolio of exclusive sports rights and a loyal base of customers, we feel that now is the right time to broaden the ways in which we distribute BT Sport.
Jeremy Darroch, group CEO of Sky said,
Great news for Sky customers.
This is all part of our stated strategy to enhance our customer offering, to broaden our appeal and to open up new revenue streams for our business.
All good and well for them, back to the 10 million ads for Irish customers then.
