Warc, 27 August 2013
LONDON: Limited demand for BT's ad space package for its new
UK sports TV channels has forced the telecoms giant to rethink its offer to
media-buyers in its battle with Sky, currently the largest pay-TV broadcaster
in the UK.
BT launched its sports channels at the beginning of August
in a challenge to Sky's 20-year dominance of TV sport, but advertisers have not
responded positively to being locked into deals lasting as long as ten months
despite BT's advertising rates being up to 20% cheaper than those of its
satellite rival.
BT sought to tie in advertisers across all its sports
offerings, as opposed to Sky which allows advertisers more flexibility about
the games they wish to be associated with, and unenthusiastic demand meant BT has
been forced to offer shorter deals, the Financial Times reported.
However, the company has stated that it has so far exceeded
internal revenue targets, buoyed by better-than-expected initial viewing
figures and larger numbers of younger viewers, who command a premium with
advertisers.
Some 764,000 viewers tuned in to the first live Premier
League football match broadcast by BT, a figure that compared favourably with
its rivals.
The company spent £738m over three years for the rights to
38 Premier League football matches and, over the past year, has also bought up
the rights to Premiership Rugby and a host of other sports. It has also
acquired the UK TV businesses of Disney-owned ESPN.
In addition, it concluded a deal with Virgin Media to make
its new sports channels available to Virgin's customers, which analysts at
Barclays estimated could generate £75m a year.
It signed up a range of brands for its launch earlier this
month, including Barclays, Microsoft, KFC and Carling, and media-buyers said
BT's pre-launch marketing helped to draw in advertisers.
Data sourced from Financial Times; additional content by
Warc staff
No comments:
Post a Comment