BT adds Vision customers, strikes DTT capacity deal for Sky Sports

BT ended March with 467,000 BT Vision TV customers after adding 16,000 new customers during the first quarter. Announcing its first quarter results, the UK telco also revealed plans to expand the roll out of its super fast broadband service to two-thirds of the UK.

With BT set to benefit from regulator Ofcom’s recent decision to force pay-TV operator BSkyB to provide wholesale access to Sky Sports 1 and 2 at regulated prices, the telco said it had reached a deal with broadcast services provider Arqiva for DTT capacity so that it is in a position to offer the sports channels to its BT Vision customers in time for the 2010/11 football season. “We are confident that consumers will benefit from [the Ofcom] decision, and we aim to bring these channels to the market in time for the new Premiership football season and at lower prices than are available currently,” BT said.

The average number of subscription views per month per BT Vision subscriber increasing by 37% over last year to 40, the telco said.

BT also said it will bring its 40Mbps fibre service to about 60% of the UK by 2015. BT had planned to cover 40% of the population by 2012 but will now extend the service by a further 20% of the country by 2015 following £1bn (€1.2bn) of investment in addition to the £1.5bn it had earmarked for the project. The first four million homes will be connected by the end of the year. The extension of the fibre project comes as BT announced a profit of just over £1bn for the 12 months to March 31, compared with a loss of £244m during the previous 12 months.