CityFibre slams BT for favouring live football over broadband

CityFibre has hit out at BT for favouring investment in live Premier League football rights over spending on ultra-fast fibre optic broadband infrastructure.

The telecoms giant recently agreed to pay £738 million for the right to air 38 live games per season from 2013-14 to 2015-16, placing the company in direct competition with Sky.

Commenting on the decision, CityFibre argued that BT is more interested in securing "me-too content" than in making "a long-term commitment to transforming the nature of connectivity in the UK market".

It insisted that there is more value in funding the deployment of "transformational" fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband assets with an economic life of around 20 years than in broadcasting three years of "ephemeral thrills on the football pitch".

BT has committed to spending £2.5 billion on rolling out super-fast broadband to two-thirds of homes and businesses across the UK by the end of 2014.

However, this deployment programme will largely focus on slower fibre-to-the-cabinet technology rather than FTTH.

In the three months to March 31st 2012, BT passed ten million properties with its fibre broadband rollout, several months ahead of its original deadline for this milestone.

June 25, 2012

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