BT beats forecasts as Champions League drives customer base

BT has reported revenues of £4.38bn (€6.75bn, $7.34bn) for the second quarter of 2015, a 2% increase on the previous quarter, as the company consolidates its exclusive football rights programme and receives the green light for acquisition of mobile player EE.

BT revenues beat analysts' forecasts of around £4.3bn. BT said earnings before tax and deductions of £1.44bn were down 1%, which reflected the group's investment in BT Sport Europe.

"We've seen good demand for BT Sport Europe and this has helped us add a record number of BT TV customers in the quarter," BT boss Gavin Patterson commented. "Its contribution has been better than we expected, helping drive a 7% increase in BT Consumer revenue."

BT won the bidding war for the rights to Uefa matches, which include the Champion's League, in a £897m deal, beating Sky Sports. It has paid millions for Premier League Saturday evening rights as well, noting huge costs on the balance sheet.

BT and Sky Sports have continuously been at war for exclusive rights and BT's CFO Tony Chanmugam already announced this would have a significant effect on the company's results earlier this year. BT performed better than expected in terms of customer base, increasing TV customers to 106,000 in the second quarter.

On Wednesday (29 October), it was announced that Competition and Markets Authority had given the green light to BT's £12.5bn takeover of Britain's biggest mobile operator EE.

The CMA decided the deal would not cause significant harm to competition in any of 10 markets investigated, despite concerns among rivals about BT's control of connections for mobile masts and wholesale mobile capacity for virtual networks.

John Wooton, chair of the CMA inquiry, said: "We provisionally think that the retail mobile market in the UK, with four main mobile providers and a substantial number of smaller operators, is competitive."