BSkyB shoots for budget viewers with pay-weekly for Sky Sports
BSKYB looks set to double down on its bid to capitalise on budget TV customers, a strategy that has seen rival TalkTalk soar to record user growth, as the satellite broadcaster begins offering a £10.99 seven day pass for Sky Sports on Thursday for its Now TV video streaming service.
The launch comes 18 months after Sky first unveiled a £9.99 day pass for Sky Sports, now £6.99, opening up its sporting content to consumers unwilling to pay for a £46 monthly subscription.
Sky’s Now TV service, which offers access to Sky’s entertainment and movie channels as well, saw its user base double during the second half of the year to June.
Now TV’s success helped Sky achieve its best TV subscriber growth since 2010 last year, adding 264,000 subscribers across its TV offerings – double its 2013 gains.
“With the start of the football season just days away, this is a great time to be giving sports fans even more choice,” said Now TV director Gidon Katz.
“We know our sports fans are hungry for more flexibility in how they watch sports and the new Sky Sports week pass offers just that.”
Today Sky is also launching its seventh sports channel, Sky Sports 5, dedicated to European football coverage.
Sky said its current pricing for both the Sky Sports day pass and week pass is only for a limited time, on 27 November a week pass will increase to £14.99.