BT considers Champions League bid

Sky paid around ?240million to share live coverage of the showpiece European matches each week, with ITV's ?160m giving the free-to-air-broadcaster first pick of Tuesday night fixtures.

The process of bidding for rights to broadcast Champions League from 2015 to 2018 in the UK is imminent.

BT Sport is expected to make an application following the success of its new dedicated channels covering the Barclays Premier League, Scottish top-flight football and Aviva Premiership rugby union.

Speaking at the Leaders in Football 2013 event, Patterson said: "We are happy with the content we have got, but we also recognise there is much more we could do.

"This is a long-term strategy for us and you can expect us to do a lot more in the future if the right opportunity to create value presents itself."

The BT chief executive continued: "We are exactly where we hoped to be at this time in terms of audiences, but in terms of what we set out to achieve, our goal was not to be number one, it was to be number two.

"If I look at the amount of live programmes we have got on the channels, it is pretty good and compares very well with Sky.

"We look at all rights, there is nothing special in that respect around the Champions League.

"There are other rights available at the moment as well as over the next couple of years and we will look at them and assess whether we feel as if they can improve the overall composition, which is what you would expect."

Source: PA

Source: PA