Delia Bushell: The BT boss shooting for Sky with BBC alliance

BT has aired its first Champions League game, presented by Gary Lineker. And now its managing director of TV and sport boss, tells Ian Burrell what will come next

BT has used sport to bolster its position in the pay TV sector (Getty Images)

BT is in talks with the BBC to increase the “momentum” behind women’s football, as the two broadcasters strengthen an alliance which links the pay and free-to-air television sectors.

The partnership, which represents a challenge to Sky, BT’s great rival in pay television, was described by Delia Bushell, BT’s managing director of TV and sport as “a very good relationship”.

BT has moved quickly to use sport to bolster its position in the pay TV sector, screening its first Champions League game on Tuesday night with its coverage presented by Gary Lineker, host of the BBC’s Match of the Day.

Next week BT opens another strategic front, allying with American cable company AMC Networks, maker of hit shows The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad. BT TV’s launch of a UK version of the AMC channel will threaten claims by Sky’s Atlantic channel to be home to the best American drama. The much-anticipated spin off Fear The Walking Dead premieres on the new channel on 31 August.

In an interview with The Independent, Ms Bushell said drama was a key battleground in the busy market for subscribers to video entertainment services. “Netflix is clearly doing an amazing job of building out its drama portfolio and Amazon is now making bigger steps forward,” she said. “The period where most of the US drama was on the Sky channels is now receding and you are seeing a lot of new services springing up.”

BT TV, which also hosts Netflix, is seeking to use its £897m deal to acquire Champions League rights as leverage for driving new viewers to its television platform. The elite football service is being offered for a season with the rest of the BT TV package, free to those who pay £45 for a BT set-top box.

Bushell acknowledges that the year ahead is about making its Champions (and Europa) League coverage “work very effectively for us” in driving its subscriber base in both broadband and television. If the coverage is perceived as a poor imitation of last year’s output on Sky and ITV, the deal will have been shown to be the waste of money which rivals have suggested.

Delia Bushell says ‘our ambition has been to raise the bar on every level’ (Philip Reeson)

“We have almost taken a blank sheet of paper, as if we are launching BT Sport again. Our ambition has been to raise the bar on every level,” she says. In addition to Lineker, BT has hired Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Howard Webb and Glenn Hoddle as pundits. It has announced that England star Harry Kane was also joining the line-up.

But it hopes that its use of technology will enable it to earn plaudits for innovation in sports broadcasting, an area where Sky has invested heavily for years.

Last week it re-launched the BT Sport app with Ultra HD pictures and goal replays from multiple angles. When the Champions League reaches the group stages next month, BT will offer eight live games simultaneously on a “connected red button” service and an option to “instant replay” all goals. Although Sky pioneered this multiple game option, Bushell, a former Sky executive, points out that its pictures were only in standard definition.

She gets out a piece of paper to demonstrate BT’s new L-shaped screen feature, which will be available on the app from 15 September, allowing viewers to access match stats as they watch. “You slightly shrink back the vision, so the game carries on and you will have possession stats and all kinds of other stats coming up as the game progresses.”

Bushell denies that BT broadband customers, who were given BT Sport as a free reward when it launched two years ago, felt put out by a £60-a-year bill to watch European football. “The vast majority thought that was an amazing value package,” she says.

The broadcaster will use its BT Sport Showcase channel on Freeview to tempt more free-to-air viewers to its offering, showing every British team in Europe at least once in front of the pay wall. The channel also shows rugby, tennis and motorsport.

“There is real value to having some mass market free-to-air coverage to make sure you retain mass audience interest and continue grass roots growth of those sports. Without a doubt you have seen some of the sports that have gone entirely pay, like cricket and golf, have started to struggle at a grass roots level.” It’s a pointed comment about sports where Sky dominates.

But Bushell has been in talks with BBC head of sport Barbara Slater to further the “good relationship” between the two broadcasters. The settlement that allowed Lineker to work for both outlets was “amicable” and followed a similar arrangement with Clare Balding.

The networks jointly cover the FA Cup and plan to team up to promote women’s football, where BT has rights to the Women’s Super League and the BBC screened the World Cup.

“There is a moment in time where both BT and the BBC see an opportunity to put a lot more momentum behind women’s football.”