BT's profits flat as sport launch arrives BT insists it is not aiming to poach BSkyB's subscribers who have access to 116 Premier League games per season on Sky Sports. Instead, BT aims to use the new content to boost its own broadband and telephone base, and lure back former customers in the hope of selling them bundled services on the back of sport. If you look at Virgin Media or Sky's average revenue per user, ours is a fraction of theirs. This is about increasing that number," said BT spokesman, Ross Cook. It will be priced very attractively compared to Sky and designed to get people back on our network. We're not trying to take pay television customers from BSkyB but we do want people back on our broadband and telephony products and sport is one way to do it. BSkyB agrees with BT that their battle is really for broadband and telephone customers. Announcing its own financial results last week, it pointed to strong growth in the proportion of customers taking communications services alongside television. It disguised a lack of new pay television sales by putting its internet-only venture Now TV into its net new customers figure. Given its sports offering is designed as a hook to catch broadband and telephone customers, BT has a dilemma over whether it should wholesale the channel to BSkyB for broadcast via satellite. No deal is expected this week and the pair remain locked in regulatory disputes over BSkyB's refusal to carry advertising for BT Sport and the satellite broadcasters own wholesale terms for Sky Sports. "If BSkyB are willing to do the deal we're still willing," said Mr Cook. We haven't made it yet though and we're ploughing ahead on the basis there won't be a deal. BSkyB said it would be watching the BT Sport launch closely this week and welcomed the competition. BT is also facing a battle with other telecommunication companies after it accused them of being "copper Luddites." Chief executive Ian Livingston made the comments after criticism of BT's £2.5bn fibre broadband roll-out, called Openreach. He said that BT was being attacked because companies such as Talk Talk did not want to invest in fibre themselves.