Media: Sky and BT sign an agreement to distribute their sports channels reciprocally from 2019

British pay-TV groups Sky and BT have signed a multi-year agreement to market their pay-TV channels on each others platforms, on 15/12/2017. The reciprocal agreement is expected to be effective in "early 2019," according to the two companies.

"Sky will make its NOW TV streaming service available on the BT TV set-top-box. As retail agent, BT will sell NOW TV on Sky’s behalf, offering BT TV customers access to Now TV’s most popular content including Sky Atlantic, Sky One, Sky Living, Sky Sports and Sky Cinema," said Sky in a press release on 15/12/2017.

"BT has agreed to wholesale its BT Sport channels to Sky, allowing Sky to sell these channels directly to Sky satellite customers. The BT Sport channels include exclusively live UEFA Champions League and Premier League football (see below). This will mean that satellite customers will be able to buy BT Sport from Sky as well as from BT," said BT on 15/12/2017.

This agreement comes one week after the launch of the two calls for tenders by the Premier League for the domestic audiovisual rights (2019-2022 cycle), of the English top…