BT is in talks with the BBC to increase the “momentum” behind women’s football

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.

“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.” 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/delia-bushell-the-bt-boss-shooting-for-sky-with-bbc-alliance-10461528.html

It's hard to say what is being alluded to here because it doesn't give any clues. The BBC don't really have any TV channels on which to broadcast us any more. BBC3 is the only one they would have given us live slots on and it is being switched off in cost cutting measures and made online only. So if BT are going to hand over some of their exclusivity to the BBC it very likely isn't going to end up being match television hours, meaning the access and exposure isn't going to increase noticeably. And I'm not sure why they would hand over match rights in the first place, that is the most important bit of the package. 

I wouldn't be surprised to see them palm off the review show onto the BBC though because I get the impression they don't particularly want to be making that any more anyway. They have gotten quite lazy with it now. The BBC already have Match of the Day, so it isn't a stretch to think we may be about to get a proper WSL equivalent by expanding on what the Women's Football Show currently is.

It would be nice if the partnership meant we got to see conti cup games from the BBC (an online stream is better than nothing for me) That doesn't seem to be something BT want to show even though they film each game!

gillynomad wrote:It would be nice if the partnership meant we got to see conti cup games from the BBC (an online stream is better than nothing for me) That doesn't seem to be something BT want to show even though they film each game!

The BBC certainly have the means to do live streams via the Sport website. Multiple concurrent streams in fact. Same with the Red Button as well, although I would be very annoyed if any content ended up solely on the Red Button service because not everybody can access that.

Still, I don't expect live streams though. I get the impression that if the FA were in any way interested in doing that we would be getting them already. I've never understood why they can't do one game week in the same way the DFB stream a Bundlesliga match each weekend. FATV is right there being massively underutilised. I remember it being used once to stream an England friendly and the quality was fantastic.