Arena Television, Telegenic to supply feeds for BT Sport

BT Sport has named the outside broadcast companies that will provide location facilities for its live coverage of the 2013-2014 English Premier League football and Premiership rugby union seasons. Starting from August Arena Television and Telegenic will be working with the newly launched sports broadcaster, supplying SD and HD feeds.

Early indications suggested that BT Sport, which is aiming to have its new broadcast centre in east London ready for operations by the end of this month, was looking for a single company to work on both contracts. In the final decision Arena TV, which has a fleet of nine scanners, will cover Premier League games, while Telegenic, with its eight units, is to work on Premiership rugby.

Commenting on his company’s new contract, Richard Yeowart, managing director of Arena TV, said: “We are delighted to be working with BT as the OB supplier for its 38 Premier League matches for the next three years.”

Neither BT Sport nor the two OB companies is giving further details on specifications and equipment at this stage. While Telegenic has 3D as well as HD capable trucks, BT Sport is only offering high def and SD for its launch services. At the announcement of the two channels in May, a spokesman for the company said that it would look at all technical options, including 3D and Ultra HD (4k), but would only introduce such technologies “if people want it”.