Nice to see Katherine Rushton once again going over the top in the Telegraph this morning talking about BT having bought "a slew of American, British and Irish sports channels from broadcaster ESPN" - er that would be 2 channels Katherine, one of which has already lost its primary reasons to exist and the other is a pale shadow of its former self.
Nonetheless this has handed BT Sport "a new battery of weapons in its escalating war with rival BSkyB" - er College Basketball, SPL, Bundesliga etc. Sky must be quaking.
Also we are told the "telecoms giant...will run some of these (channels) under the ESPN name - er likely 1 actually Katherine.
Stick to the facts rather than the hyperbole. What this deal does is give BT direct access to ESPN's existing subscriber base, EPG slots on some platforms, staff with worthwhile sports channel experience and avoids it having to get embroiled in a whole series of minor sports rights negotiations. A good deal for BT on that basis.
It does very little in the battle with Sky. What BT can do is offer its own sports channels more attractively through its own platform and triple offerings than you might get if you add a BT Sports sub through another platform.
On another point, if Sky wants to do anything re a US Sports channel, as some have suggested but i'm less sure about, then it will target MLB rights initially if these are outside the BT / ESPN deal (unclear) then follow up by increasing its investment and output in NBA and NFL and then chase after NHL rights (maybe by acquiring Premier Sports operation or somesuch or simply waiting for the rights to become available).
The sooner we know what is or is not included in this deal the better.