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BT scores £1.2bn deal to secure UEFA Champions and Europa League broadcast rights for another 3 years

Last updated: 20:00 06 Mar 2017 AEDT, First published: 18:33 06 Mar 2017 AEDT

BT Sport presenters
BT first won the rights to show the Champions League in 2013, beating Sky with a deal worth £299mln a year

BT Group PLC (LON:BT.A) is laying out another £1.18bn for the rights to broadcast the UEFA Champions League and Europa League for another three years, locking out arch-rival Sky PLC (LON:SKY) from the competition.

The FTSE 100-listed firm will pay around £394m each year for the rights which will run until the end of the 2020/21 season folliowing a competitive auction.

In a statement, the group said: “Following the acquisition of EE last year which more than doubled BT's marketable customer base, BT is in a strong position to monetise this investment through subscription, wholesale, commercial, and advertising revenues."

BT first won the rights to show the Champions League in 2013, beating Sky with a deal worth £299mln a year and signalling its intention to become a serious player in the sports broadcasting market.

The group streamed both finals last year on YouTube for the first time, taking the number of people who watched BT's live coverage of the finals to more than twelve million.

 John Petter, Consumer CEO at BT, said: "We are delighted to have renewed these rights. The UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League are two of the best competitions in the world and we would like to thank UEFA for choosing us as their exclusive broadcast partner in the UK.

“The UEFA Champions League is due to get even stronger and we are delighted that fans will be able to enjoy two live matches a night for the first time."

In early trading, BT shares were up around 0.5%, or 1.5p at 334.45p.

Sky shares lost 1.5p at 996.5p, also weighed by last Friday's news that the UK Culture Secretary is 'minded' to investigate the firm's planned takeover by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOX).

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