BT names sports partner

BT Sports has named the production partner for its upcoming sport channel, which is due to launch in the UK next summer.

Sunset+Vine, part of the Tinopolis group of production companies, has landed the contract to produce BT’s 38 live football games in the Barclays Premier League from the start of the 2013/14 season.

The deal also includes 69 live Aviva Premiership rugby union matches and other sports programming.

“We have chosen Sunset+Vine as our lead preferred partner on the basis of its creative approach and the quality of the team they have lined up to work on the programming,” said Simon Green, head of BT Sport.

Sunset+Vine’s credits include ESPN’s Aviva Premiership rugby union coverage, horse racing for the BBC and Channel 4’s cricket. BT said it intends to work with other production partners on other sports programming.

BT announced its arrival on the live sport scene in the UK with a bang earlier this year when it agreed a three-year deal to pay £246m (US$398m) a season for 38 live Premier League football games, including several ‘first picks’ which will enable it to screen the best game of the weekend ahead of the league’s main broadcaster Sky Sports.

It has also paid £152m for live Rugby Union rights over three years in a controversial deal that has split the sport’s main European competition.