Premier League: BT Sport set to rival Sky Sports' "biggest ever season"

"This is our biggest ever season of Premier League football. Sky Sports will show every match between last season’s top four as well as every club at least twice by December," said Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports, following the announcement of the first batch of 2013/14 Premier League matches to be broadcast live on TV, on the 11/07/2013.

With 116 live Premier League matches, the 2013/14 season is a record for Sky Sports. In the first round of fixtures (August-December 2013), Sky Sports will broadcast 43 matches (at least three per week), a match from all 20 Premier League teams and nine derbies including Manchester (City vs United), north London (Tottenham vs Arsenal), north east (Newcastle vs Sunderland) and south Wales (Swansea vs Cardiff).

Whilst BT Sport's only big games of the first half of the season are Tottenham's home games against Manchester United and Chelsea, and the Merseyside derby (Everton vs Liverpool), the new channel could have a strong end to the season, as it has only exercised 5 of its 18 first picks, leaving it with 13 first picks for the…