BT has revealed that more than half a million people have signed up to its new sport channels before the launch next month.
The group hopes to break Sky's grip on armchair sports fans by enabling broadband customers to watch Premier League football for free, after it bought the rights to show 38 top flight games a season. BT added another 95,000 retail broadband customers in the three months to the end of June, 12% stronger than the growth a year earlier, giving it 6.8 million customers.
Underlying pre-tax profits beat expectations to rise 5% to £595 million, but restructuring costs pushed bottom line profits down 16% to £449m. BT launched the first serious challenge to Sky in pay-TV sport when it bid £738m for the three-year package of Premier League football last year, part of plans to attract customers to its broadband business.
The channels launch on August 1.
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