 have both signed a cross-licensing deal of all their channels, including sports. The deal will mean that both companies){kind=link}
BT and Sky (LON: SKY) have both signed a cross-licensing deal of all their channels, including sports.
The deal will mean that both companies will be able to sell their channels on each other’s platforms. BT will now be able to offer Sky Sports, Sky Cinema and Sky Atlantic to UK customers, while Sky can sell BT’s Sports channels.
“This is an important day for our customers, who will be able to enjoy a whole range of Sky’s sport and entertainment programming on their BT TV boxes,” said Gavin Patterson, the chief executive of BT.
“This is the next logical step for our TV and content strategy. We feel that now is the right time to broaden the ways in which we distribute BT Sport.
The deal between both the media giants will mean that entertainment channels from Sky will be available on BT’s platform. The long-awaited deal has previously been attempted and broken down due to disagreements over both companies would sell each other’s product.
Sky boss Jeremy Darroch said: “This is great news for Sky customers who will be able to access all matches on Sky and BT channels from the Premier League, UEFA Champions League and Europa League directly with a single Sky TV subscription and with the great customer service that we provide.”
The research director at media analysts Ampere, Richard Broughton, said that the deal between both media giants is “certainly very unusual”.
Broughton believes the deal is due to the increasing costs of sports rights.
The deal comes following news of Disney’s (NYSE: DIS) plans to buy Fox (NASDAQ: FOXA), including the 39.1 percent stake in Sky. The deal totalled $52.4 billion (£39 billion).
Fox boss Rupert Murdoch will instead be focusing on his newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, The Times and the Sun.