One of two things will happen to BT long term as a sports broadcaster. They'll either succeed or they won't. If it's the latter, then I guess their current MO is moot. If, as I expect they greatly aspire to, they become long term players in the market then they've served to greatly alienate a group of supporters that all key indicators would suggest is going to increase greatly in numbers in the years ahead. Football fans have incredibly long memories when they feel they've been egregiously wronged by the media; the Mirror and their reporting on the Mansfield game in 1998 being a case in point. This will be a running sore for many years, if they're still at the table, of course.
They've thrown untold sums to secure broadcasting rights and yet their strategic planning has been utterly short-sighted and shambolic. Their pundits pontificate about all the money we've spent to little effect without the slightest hint of irony. They talk about empty seats without any sense of self-awareness about their channels pitiful viewing figures.
When it comes to gratuitously wasting money in football nothing comes close to BT. They are the Big Mal of the broadcasting world.
