'We are interested in the stories around the sport'

First, Partick Thistle v Dundee United in the SPFL will merely be BT's first competitive match as a fully functioning sports broadcaster, following coverage of a friendly on Thursday. Second, the BT 'gamble' is being made by a company that turns over more than £20bn a year and has a market capitalisation of £26bn. As was pointed out quietly but forcibly yesterday, BT has the financial muscle to ensure they are involved in a marathon rather than a sprint.

Sport, too, is the tease, rather than the full story behind a remarkable tilt at broadcasting. The backstory is broadband and communications, the main purpose is to make BT the lead player in both line rentals and new media in the UK and beyond.

The catchline is "live sport for free". It comes at a price, though, in that broadband must be bought to make this promise valid. The theme is to build a business with the help of live broadcasting, not to build a business solely on live broadcasting. It is why ESPN and other bidders simply could not compete with BT's grab of the Barclays Premier League rights. They tried to make it work on a subscription basis, BT used their considerable financial power to knock down the door of sports broadcasting to announce they are here for all one's broadband, telephone and ancillary needs.

"The difference between us and previous broadcasters who have covered Scottish football is that we are a huge business. We are not easy to push out of the market. We are the biggest fixed telephone line and broadband company in the country. That is something Setanta and the other broadcasters, such as ITV Sport in the past, could not provide," said Marc Watson, chief executive of television at BT Retail.

So what can Scottish football expect from BT other than live coverage of 30 top-flight matches and 10 Rangers games? All executives politely declined to be specific about figures beyond talking about the £1bn ballpark figure of BT investment.

BT is now broadcasting a league without a title sponsor so surely a £26bn firm could have come up with the relatively small sum to have their name on the entity rather than just the previews and match coverage? "The short answer to that is that we are pretty busy launching our channels. We are investing in Scottish football in other ways. We want to put our money in the content," he said.

Pressed on whether the newly introduced play-offs were introduced as a result of pressure from the broadcaster, he said: "All we have ever said is that were are looking for a strong competitive element that retains interest among the fans. It is up to the SPFL to decide the format and how it works."

What will change in the coverage? Commentary will come from Derek Rae and Gary McAllister, the former Scotland captain. Darrell Currie will host coverage that promises to break new ground. "We want to get closer to the fan, we want our coverage to be more engaging, more accessible," he said. Details are sparse but BT will attempt to broadcast with presenters trackside and there will be moves to take cameras into areas previously declared "no go".

Football has a history of resisting such change but Watson indicated BT may be applying the pressure to follow the lead from the USA where access is all areas. "In the USA they do a good job of covering the back stories," he said. "We are interested in the stories around the sport, not just the live games. We will be looking to innovate."

This "innovation" has tended to founder on the intransigence of clubs who guard jealously access to their players and to their properties. "That is a work in progress," he said. "You cannot drag people along with you. You have to bring people along willingly. We are working with the clubs on the things we want to do and over the next few years we will look to progress things and bring people along with us."

He was similarly diplomatic about the Saturday 5.30pm kick-off time that has caused some concern among supporters. "Saturday tea-time is a decent slot for us and for our viewers. So is Friday night. We will work in conjunction with the SPFL on kick-off times and bear in mind the spectators at the matches. But success for us means people watching SPFL matches on BT Sport," he said.

However, these are all minor matters in the grand plan. "When you step back from football and look at the sports market, only one in five households in the UK pay to get access to sport. That is a pretty small number when you consider that last summer over 20 million households were watching the Olympics regularly. We want to bridge that gap."

This was an unnecessary reminder that football is increasingly placed under the category of show business. BT is all business and now the SPFL must come up with the show.