Sky Sports-BT Sport Rivalry Kicks Off With Start Of English Premier League

The Premier League season "will again be littered with old rivalries when it kicks off on Saturday," according to Simon Goodley of the London GUARDIAN. Not least "will be the competition played out on television screens between Sky Sports and BT Sport." This season's added dimension "consists of a new head-to-head between the channel's analysts:" Sky's Gary Neville against his former ManU and int'l teammate, BT's new signing Paul Scholes. But "despite these arrivals and last year's encouraging start, in broadcasting terms BT Sport remains way behind Sky." That "is partly to do with the rights each side possesses." BT spent £738M ($1.2B) over three years for 38 live Premier League matches a season, including 18 "first picks." But, to put that into perspective, Sky paid a total of £2.3B ($3.8B) for 116 matches per season "over the same period, with 20 weeks when it gets its choice of games" (GUARDIAN, 8/14).