Timeline of BT Sport

This is a timeline of the history of BT Sport.

2010s
  • 2012
    • 12 June – The announcement of the rights to the Premier League for the next three seasons reveals that BT has won the rights to 38 matches each season.[1] The news followed speculation that ESPN was reconsidering its position in the UK.[2]
    • September – BT wins the rights to Premiership Rugby and its associated 7s Series, and in November it picks up the rights to American, Brazilian, French and Italian top-flight football.[3][4]
  • 2013
    • January – BT announces that they will broadcast Women's Tennis Association matches from 21 tournaments.[5]
    • 25 February – BT agrees to acquire ESPN's UK and Ireland TV channels business, consisting of ESPN and ESPN America, as well as the rights associated with the channel, such as the FA Cup. BT will continue to broadcast at least one ESPN branded channel as part of its BT Sport package of services.[6]
    • 2 May – BT Sport 1 and BT Sport 2 are added to the BT TV EPG with an on-screen message saying that the channels are coming soon.
    • 3 May – The channels are added to Sky and are called Sailing 1 and Sailing 2.
    • 7 May – BT Sport acquires the rights to air Ultimate Fighting Championship events and taped programming in the UK and Ireland for three years, from 1 August.[7]
    • 9 May – It is announced that BT Sport had acquired an exclusive five-year deal to broadcast MotoGP races from the 2014 season, including free practices and qualifying as well as full coverage of Moto2 and Moto3.[8] BT Sport also buys the rights to the FA WSL, A-League, the Football Conference for two years with 25-30 live games a season, including the end-of-season play-offs.[9] and programming from Red Bull Media House.
    • 1 August – BT Sport launches at 6pm.
    • 3 August – BT Sport Films launches, showing feature-length sports documentary films.
    • 15 August – BT signs a wholesale deal with Virgin Media bringing the channels free of charge to customers on the TV XL package.[10]
    • 9 November – BT announces a £897 million deal with UEFA to broadcast the Champions League and Europa League exclusively on BT Sport from the 2015–16 season for three years. The deal will end two decades of the competition being broadcast free-to-air on ITV, although BT stated that the finals of both competitions and at least one match per season involving each participating British team would still be broadcast free-to-air.[11]
    • 1 December – BT Sport shows its first NBA match, thereby adding professional basketball to its broadcasting of the College game which it shows as part of its coverage of the NCAA.[12]
  • 2015
    • January – BT Sport becomes the secondary rights holder to the BDO World Darts Championship.
    • 9 June – ESPN is rebranded as BT Sport ESPN.
    • 12–28 June – BT Sport broadcasts its first multi-sport event when it covers the 2015 European Games.
    • 1 August – BT Sport launches a fourth channel - BT Sport Europe. The channel will be used to show its coverage of European football and European rugby union.[14]
    • 2 August – BT Sport broadcasts the FA Community Shield for the first time.
    • 23 August – BT Sport announces that it has won the rights for Australia's home matches for five years starting in the 2016-17 season. This means that BT would show The Ashes series between England and Australia in 2017-18 with the deal also including the Big Bash League, the Women's Ashes and the Women's Big Bash League.[15]
    • September – BT Sport launches two more channels. BT Sport Showcase will show selected coverage on a free-to-air basis and BT Sport Ultra HD features selected coverage in 4K.
  • 2016
    • July – BT Sport becomes the rights holder of the Scottish League Cup.
    • 4 August – BT Sport Europe is rebranded as BT Sport 3 so that it can show the full range of coverage from BT Sport.
    • 13 August – BT Sport launches its football scores programme BT Sport Score.
    • September – BT Sport becomes the official UK broadcast partner of rugby union's European Champions and Challenge Cup competitions.
  • 2018
    • January – BT Sport shows the BDO World Darts Championship for the final time.
    • 14 February – BT and Sky agree a £4.4bn three-year deal to show live Premiership football matches from 2019 to 2022, but the amount falls short of the £5.1bn deal struck in 2015.[17]
    • March–May – BT Sport broadcasts the 2018 Indian Premier League. It is a one-off as the following year the event transfers back to Sky Sports.
    • May – BT Sport shows Serie A for the final time as in July is loses rights to Italian football to Eleven Sports[18]
    • June – BT Sport shows the NBA for the final time ahead of the rights transferring to Sky Sports.[19]
    • August – BT Sport becomes the exclusive holder of all rights to the UEFA Champions League. The deal includes live coverage and highlights. Consequently, for the first time, there is no free-to-air coverage of the competition.
    • 15 September – BT Sport launches its pay-per-view channel BT Sport Box Office.[20][21]
    • 4 December – The standard definition feeds of BT Sport stop broadcasting on Virgin Media.
  • 2019
    • 2 August – BT Sport 4K is rebranded as BT Sport Ultimate.
    • 3 November – BT Sport ends its coverage of the WTA, having broadcast women's tennis since 2014. The rights pass to Amazon Prime for the 2020 season.
    • 8 December – BT Sport broadcasts the Scottish League Cup for the final time. The rights transfer to Premier Sports.

2020s
  • 2020
    • January – BT Sport takes over as broadcaster of U.S. professional wrestling promotion WWE.[22]
    • March – BT Sports shows the Scottish Professional Football League for the final time.[23] In recent seasons Sky had shared the rights with BT Sport.
    • 8 September – It is announced that all of September's Premier League fixtures will be shown on TV due to fans not being into stadiums due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes a weekly 3pm Saturday afternoon match, shown on TV in the UK for the first time with BT showing three of the additional fixtures, including one on Saturday at 3pm.[24]
    • 9 October – The Premier League announces that October's games not scheduled for TV broadcast will be shown on a pay-per-view basis on either Sky Sports Box Office or BT Sport Box Office.[25]
    • 13 November – The Premier League confirms that the broadcasting of matches via pay-per-view will end and that all games in December and January will be shown by either Sky Sports and BT Sport with one game also being shown on both Amazon Prime and the BBC.[26]
  • 2021
    • 5 February – BT Sport secures the rights to all international and domestic cricket played in the West Indies and New Zealand for the next two years. This includes England's tour to the West Indies in 2022.[27]
    • May – BT Sport will end its coverage of the FA Cup as the rights pass to the BBC and ITV.

See also

References
  1. "Premier League rights sold to BT and BSkyB for £3bn". BBC News. 13 June 2012.
  2. "ESPN could quit UK". Pocket-lint. 9 May 2012.
  3. "BT poaches Premiership Rugby rights from ESPN, Sky". Digital Spy. 12 September 2012.
  4. "BT deals further blow to ESPN with new rights deals". Digital Spy. 6 November 2012.
  5. "BT Sport broadens appeal as it signs live women's tennis with WTA agreement" (Press release). BT Group. 11 January 2013. Archived from the original on 17 February 2013. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  6. "BT buys ESPN'S UK and Ireland TV channels". The Guardian. 25 February 2013.
  7. "Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) confirms BT Sport deal". Seen It. 7 May 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  8. "BT Sport to bring MotoGP™ to British audiences from 2014". MotoGP. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  9. "BT Calling". The Non League Football Paper. 21 May 2013.
  10. "BT and Virgin Media sign wholesale BT Sport deal". BT Group. 15 August 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
  11. "Champions League: BT Sport win £897m football rights deal". BBC Sport. 9 November 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  12. NBA seals 'multiyear' UK broadcast deal with BT Sport
  13. Evans, David (10 January 2014). "World Rally Championship seals BT Sport TV deal with live coverage". Autosport.com. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  14. BT television boosted by sports channel screening Uefa Champions League
  15. BT Sport has secured UK TV rights to Ashes in Australia
  16. FIFA 17 matches to be broadcast live on TV for first time by BT Sport
  17. "Premier League raises less from TV rights auction". BBC News. BBC. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  18. Serie A: Eleven Sports gain TV rights from BT in three-year deal
  19. "Sky Sports and NBA announce four-year broadcast and digital partnership". Sky Sports. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  20. "BT Sport to launch pay-per-view Box Office channel". sport-onthebox.com. 17 April 2018. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  21. "Canelo v GGG rematch to launch BT Sport Box Office". sport-onthebox.com. 18 August 2018. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  22. "BT Sport secure WWE rights from rivals Sky Sports". The Independent. 2019-06-20. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  23. "SPFL secures ground-breaking broadcast deals | SPFL". spfl.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  24. MacInnes, Paul (Sep 8, 2020). "All 28 Premier League games in September to be shown on live TV". Retrieved Sep 29, 2020 – via www.theguardian.com.
  25. Premier League's pay-per-view TV deal under fire from furious football fans
  26. Premier League confirms scrapping of controversial pay-per-view model
  27. "BT Sport to air England cricket from West Indies and NZ". 5 Feb 2021.
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