BT Sport marketing blitz pushes customer numbers past 2.5m
BT’s multi-million pound investment in marketing BT Sport helped attract almost half a million new customers to the channel in its latest quarter, helping the media company return to quarterly revenue growth for the first time in more than four years.
BT says revenue for the three months to 31 December grew 2 per cent to £4.59bn. Pre-tax profit grew 8 per cent to £722m.
The company says it now has more than 2.5 million BT Sport customers, up from just over 2 million in the previous quarter.
One hundred and fifty thousand broadband customers were added against a loss of 70,000, a 60 per cent improvement on the 173,000 that left in the same quarter a year ago. The BT Sport and broadband gains helped push revenue from its consumer business up 6 per cent.
The company has invested millions on content and marketing BT Sport since it started showing Premier League matches in August 2013. Marketing activity is set to increase again after it beat rival BskyB to win exclusive rights to air UEFA Champions and Europa League matches from next season.
BSkyB has responded by marketing its sport and other content offering heavily. It reported yesterday (30 January) marketing costs increased 13 per cent to £613m in its first-half.
