BT Sport misses out on NBA and UFC

BT Sport will lose the rights to broadcast NBA basketball and UFC fights after the company withdrew from negotiations this weekend.

This news follows the channel’s failure to secure the rights to broadcast Italian Serie A football matches after BT lost a bidding war to sports broadcasting newcomer Eleven Sports earlier in July.

Marc Allera, head of BT Consumer, said: “It’s like a big football club in the transfer window. If a striker is worth £50m I won’t pay £70m for him. At the wrong price, everything is expendable.”

The telecommunications giant, which now shells out £1bn per annum on content rights, appears to be dropping rights that are of peripheral importance in favour of its core offering, such as Barclay’s Premier League matches, where it now faces new competition from Amazon as well as Sky.

To this end, Allera said that 90-95% of BT Sports’ viewing comes from the rights it still has including the Premier League, Champions League, boxing and rugby union.

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said the company’s strategy remains unclear and suggested that one view could be that the company is utilising a more “level-headed approach” when bidding for rights.

"The other is that with a lame duck chief executive there is not the confidence to pursue rights packages with the kind of vim that is needed,” said Wilson.

The FTSE traded firm is on the hunt for a new helmsman after current chief executive Gavin Patterson was given the heave-ho in June after losing the confidence of shareholders. He will leave the group at the end of this year.

BT Group’s shares were down 1.46% at 232.55p at 0834 BST on Monday.