BT is facing a tough decision over whether or not to sell *** the wholesale rights to its live Premier League football matches.
The telecoms giant has won the rights to screen 38 games per season from 2013/14 to 2015/16 in a deal worth £738 million and will show the fixtures on its soon-to-launch BT Sport service. Among BT's package of live matches - which represents a quarter of the clashes to be televised each season - is the opening game of the new Premier League campaign.
BT has already revealed that it will sell the sporting content directly to *** customers, but the satellite broadcaster is understood to be keen on acquiring the wholesale rights so it can offer the whole season to *** subscribers at its own prices.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, a source close to talks between the rival broadcasters explained: "The main issue has been over wholesale rights.
"BT does not want to give them to *** since it wants to use BT Sport to lock in two million of its customers who watch *** on BT broadband."
