3 stays with sport for BSkyB agreement

This time 3 has signed an agreement with satellite giant BSkyB, which will allow it to offer customers video news and action from Sky Sports.

The Sky Sports service has become the latest addition to Today on 3, the mobile network’s news and entertainment channel.

A spokesman for the company said the service “builds on 3’s success with the Barclaycard FA Premier League highlights, which have been so popular with customers”.

3 will be hoping for a smoother start to this deal than its £35m, three-year deal with the Premiership, which was halfway through before the network got off the ground.

It still sees sport as a way of bringing in customers, as well as its recent ads featuring actress Anna Friel.

The network says the range of content available for the new season will include “improved quality of service, featuring exclusive match highlights, previews, archive footage and Premiership match round-ups”.

The Sky Sports service will offer 3 customers the latest sports bulletins, top sports news stories, the Premier League football news, European Tour golf and clips from Sky’s weekly Soccer AM TV show. All the video clips will be up to two minutes in length and will be produced and edited specifically for delivery over the 3 network and Today on 3.

The agreement also includes the comprehensive range of text information from Sky. Gareth Jones, chief operating officer of 3 UK, said: “3 pledges to offer customers the most comprehensive mobile sports service in the UK. Through our partnership with Sky Sports, we’re bringing the best of sports broadcasting to our customers and confirming Today on 3 as the home of mobile sports news and video.”

Stephen Nutall, Sky Sports head of enterprises, said: “This deal underlines Sky’s proposition of delivering sports content via a cross-media experience – television, online and video mobile.

I’m sure our experience of producing such material will ensure that 3’s users can benefit from an unrivalled range of sports-related news and coverage on the move.”