BT Sport is making its magazine and live sport programming available to anyone with Freeview, BT TV, Sky or Virgin TV during October.
Viewers will be able to watch BT Sport’s entertainment and chat shows and live sport on BT TV and Freeview channel 57 during the weeks of October 7-11 and October 14-18.
The channel will be free-to-view from 7.00pm Monday to Friday during those two weeks.
It will give viewers a chance to catch sports entertainment shows including The Clare Balding Show and Danny Baker and Danny Kelly’s VSPO.
Sports fans will also be able to catch up on the latest from the worlds of UFC, rugby and football with discussion programmes, Beyond the Octagon, Rugby Tonight and Life’s a Pitch.
BT Sport will also be showing live sporting action on the channel during these two weeks including the FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifier between Spain and Belarus, the UEFA Under-21 Qualifier between England and Lithuania, the Skrill Premier match between Macclesfield Town and Southport and Bundesliga action between 1899 Hoffenheim and Bayer Leverkusen.
To round off ‘Open October’, BT Sport will also be making BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN open during the weekend of the October 26-27.
The BT Sport weekend runs from 6pm Friday to 6am Monday and any Freeview, Sky or Virgin viewer will be able watch live rugby from the Aviva Premiership, including Bath v Gloucester, Northampton v Saracens and Wasps v Leicester.
The weekend will also see Crystal Palace take on Arsenal in the Barclays Premier League.
Simon Green, Head of BT Sport, said: “We want to give even more viewers the chance to see the new programmes and live sporting action happening on BT Sport during October.
“Making the channels open to all allows us to show how we are offering something for everyone, from sports entertainment shows through to exclusive live sporting action.”
BT Sport is showing 38 exclusively live football matches from the Barclays Premier League, including 18 of the “top picks”. The channels are also showing live FA Cup with Budweiser action, UEFA Europa League matches, top tier live football from Germany, Italy, France and Scotland – with a further 10 Rangers matches – and the FA Women’s Super League.
There are also 30 exclusively live football Conference matches from the Skrill Premier including the play offs and the Promotion final at Wembley.
The channels also feature WTA women’s tennis, action from the UFC, and Moto GP from 2014.
BT Sport is free with BT Broadband. TV customers require a set top box, for BT TV customers this can be a YouView box with BT Infinity or Vision+ box, for Sky TV customers this is via Sky’s digital satellite platform.
Customers taking BT Sport via Sky’s digital satellite platform can access the channels with just one call to BT.
TV customers who receive the channels via BT TV with BT Infinity or on the Sky digital satellite platform have the option of receiving the channels in HD for just £3 a month.
Virgin Media XL TV customers can access BT Sport as part of their packages, Virgin Media also offers the channels as a standalone premium service to TV customers who do not take the XL pack.
This means around three million households cam already watch BT Sport on TV.
Customers without BT Broadband can also receive the channels through the Sky Digital Satellite platform for £15 per month in high definition or £12 in standard definition.
There is no requirement for customers to take a Sky TV subscription as BT Sport is retailed by BT.
For more information or to order BT Sport, customers should call 0800 400 440 or visit: btsport.com.
Follow @BTSport on Twitter for the latest news and for exclusive behind-the-scenes access and competitions, see BT Sport on Facebook.
In the weeks commencing October 7-14, viewers will be able to see BT Sport on Freeview channel 57 Monday through to Friday from 7pm each evening.
On October 25-28, any Sky, Virgin, and Freeview customers will be able watch all three BT Sport channels for free from Friday 6.00pm to Monday 6.00am.
Freeview customers will be able to watch BT Sport 1 only on channel 57 on Friday from 6pm to 4am, Saturday from 11.30am to 4am, and on Sunday from 11.30am to 6am.
What’s coming up over BT Sport’s Free Access Weekend on October 25-27?
Highlights include:
– PREMIER LEAGUE: Crystal Palace v Arsenal, Saturday 11.30am on BT Sport 1
– AVIVA PREMIERSHIP: 3 live matches; Bath v Gloucester (Fri, 7pm), Northampton v Saracens (Sat, 3pm) and Wasps v Leicester (Sun, 1pm) all on BT Sport 1
– UFC: Live from Manchester, headlined by Machida v Munoz (Sat, 7.30pm on BT Sport 2)
– SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP: Ross County v Inverness CT (Fri, 7.15pm on BT Sport 2)
– EUROPEAN FOOTBALL: 2 games from French Ligue 1, including big spending PSG and Monaco, plus Serie A featuring AC Milan, Inter Milan and Napoli, plus 3 live Bundesliga games
– TENNIS: WTA Championships, including the semi-final and final (BT Sport 2)
– BASEBALL: MLB World Series Game 3 & 4
I still say Sky Sports has more to offer for the sports fan than BT Sport, I for one will not leave Sky just because they think they are better Sky have 116 live Football matches and Live Formula 1.