LONDON (Reuters) - Global broadcaster Eleven Sports will make its two new British channels available for 5.99 pounds per month, stepping up the challenge to Sky and BT with its increasing range of European soccer and golf.
Eleven, broadcasting to more than 17 million paying customers in markets including the United States, Singapore, Myanmar, Italy, Poland and Portugal, is launching two new online channels in Britain and Ireland from next week.
Any British customer willing to sign up for an annual pass before the end of August can pay 49.99 pounds, or 59.99 pounds after that date. Irish customers will pay 6.99 euros per month or 59.99 euros for the early pass.
It has won the rights to show the top flight soccer in Spain and Italy, the 2018 PGA Championship Golf and is expected to announce the acquisition of the Ultimate Fighting Championship shortly.
Led by the former head of TV at BT, Marc Watson, Eleven Sports has also agreed for the global sports, events and talent management company IMG to take a minority stake in its new British channels.
Eleven is hoping its simple offer will appeal to viewers, with the channels available online, via an app and on a standalone basis, as opposed to many other pay-TV groups which bundle their channels in with services such as broadband.
Sky, Britain's leading sports broadcaster which owns the rights to show the bulk of the English Premier League, the most popular competition, makes its sports channels available online for 12.99 pounds a week or 7.99 pounds a day.
Eleven is also in talks with other major platforms in the UK and Ireland to make its channels as widely available as possible.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Jason Neely)