BSkyB has announced plans to offer full access to its Sky Sports channels through its pay-as-you-go Now TV on-demand platform.
From this spring, the broadcaster will charge £9.99 for a 24 hour day-pass for all six Sky Sports channels, including Sky Sports News.
This means, for the first time, non-Sky TV subscribers will be able to access sporting jewels like Premier League football, The Masters golf, test match cricket or PDC darts events without committing to a contract.
The day-pass is sure to attract interest from sports fans who're keen to tune in for a one-off event, rather than rock Sky Sports all month long, for the minimum cost of £42.50 a month.
Bolstering numbers
Viewers will be able to watch the action through their web browser, through dedicated Now TV apps on devices like the iPad and the Xbox 360, or through connected YouView or Roku HD set-top boxes.
Sky launched Now TV last summer, initially with Sky Movies, but the presence of premium sports channels will surely boost usage beyond the 25,000 subscribers it had registered up until the end of December.
BSkyB CEO Jeremy Darroch said: "It will complement subscription packages well, it a way to extend Sky Movies, Sky Sports and later entertainment channels to an entirely new set of customers.
"We think that a day pass is going to be attractive. We think it will work well alongside Sky Sports."
Numbers up
Meanwhile, in its latest quarterly earning's report, Sky announced pre-tax profits of £642m, bolstering its subscriber numbers to 10.6m, but only adding 25,000 new users in the process.
The company said 93,000 subscribers updated their services to Sky HD, bringing the total up to 4.56m, which isn't far short of half of its total user-base.
Sky Broadband customers rose by 132,000 during the quarter.
Via Guardian
