Sky Sports goes live on BT Vision

Sky Sports 1 and 2 will be available on BT Vision this weekend and, with the price starting at £6.99 a month for one channel, this might give the service the boost it badly needs.

Hybrid Freeview/IPTV service, BT Vision, gained only 14,000 new customers in the second quarter, its worst performance for two years.

The BT Group as a whole managed to boost profits 17% to £446m, although this follows severe cost cuts with 35,000 jobs lost in the last two years.

BT also managed to add 96,000 more broadband customers, which it must now be hoping to win over to its IPTV service.

An advertising campaign for BT Vision is underway, but the service will have to compete with BSkyB and Top Up TV, which are also offering Sky Sports.