BT appoints Sky Media to sell BT Sport ad inventory
July 2, 2020
BT and Sky have agreed a new multi-year partnership that broadens their commercial relationship. Sky Media, the advertising sales arm of Sky, will now sell advertisements and sponsorship across all BT Sport channels in the UK.
Following a competitive tender process, BT Sport have awarded their advertising sales contract to Sky Media, who will replace Channel 4. The agreement means that Sky Media will exclusively sell advertisements and sponsorship across both residential and commercial feeds of all BT Sport channels in the UK as well as the BT Sport app and website.
Sky Media currently represents all of Sky’s channels and also sells on behalf of a range of major broadcasters and channels including Channel 5, Viacom and Discovery.
Andy Haworth, Managing Director, BT Sport said, “Channel 4 have been a great partner who have been with us since launch and have helped us become the established business we are today. I would like to thank them for all of their hard work and support. We are excited to be forging a new partnership with the Sky Media team, whose expertise in the sport market stood out, we are excited about the new opportunities this will bring and look forward to working together.”
Patrick Behar, Chief Business Officer, Sky, added: “This new agreement between BT Sport and Sky Media is just another step forward in deepening the longstanding partnership between BT and Sky. From rolling out our world-class entertainment on BT TV through our NOW TV service, and reaching a deal to offer both parties’ sports offerings in one place earlier this year, our relationship is going from strength to strength. This latest agreement is another perfect fit for both of us and it will mean Sky Media can offer clients all the best sports advertising available in the UK, in one place.”
This deal follows the content deal agreed between the two media firms in 2017, which allowed Sky customers to add BT Sport to their Sky subscriptions and BT TV customers to access NOW TV content on their set-top boxes for the first time, earlier this year.