Sky Sports and BT Sport have no refund plans amid coronavirus pandemic

Sky Sports and BT Sport have no plans to refund customers despite most of their live content being suspended - but a worst-case scenario of competitions being cancelled altogether might change that.

There are understood to be guarantees in place - differing hugely between sports - where the channels will get some compensation if contracted fixtures are never delivered.

This remains such a hypothetical scenario for now that nobody is calculating refunds. But some industry insiders privately acknowledge it could become a matter for debate ‘later down the line.’

The coronavirus crisis has wiped out most of the world’s major sports fixtures until next month and perhaps for the foreseeable future.

Premier League games, shown by both broadcasters, are on hold, as games in the EFL, in Scotland and in every major football in Europe, as well as UEFA club matches.

Postponements in the F1 season, Test cricket, golf and tennis tournaments as well as major north American leagues including the NBA, NHL and MLS mean sports broadcasting schedules will be bare.

A typical Sky subscription including sport begins at prices north of £40 a month while the cheapest BT Sport package costs £25 a month. For now, virtually none of the premium live sport customers are paying for is available.

Both companies are taking the stance that all promised live events will take place at some point - and therefore paying fans will get what they have paid for. “A number of sporting events have been postponed, but not cancelled, so we expect to be able to show these when they are rescheduled,’ said Sky Sports Managing Director, Rob Webster. ‘Our live schedule is likely to look different for a period of time. As more information becomes available, we will continue to provide updates to all of our customers.’

A BT spokesperson said: ‘We apologise to customers about the changes to the BT Sport schedule this month due to the impact of Covid-19. The situation is evolving rapidly and we are working with the leagues to continue to broadcast live sport wherever possible and broadcast games when they are rescheduled over the coming months.’

Yet there remains the possibility that some fixtures won’t ever happen. If that transpired, the broadcasters would expect some money back from leagues or event organisers, who mostly have indemnity insurance to cover such payouts.

Purely as an illustration of how this might work - and not to suggest the Premier League will be completely called off - Sky and BT between them have paid around £480m for matches still to be played in the 2019-20 campaign. Sky’s £4.364bn deal for 128 games per season from 2019-22 works out at £11.625m a game and BT’s £975m deal for 52 games per season works out at £6.25m per game.

Crudely put, Sky have almost £400m of games left to show this season, and BT more than £80m.

Their contracts with the Premier League wouldn’t necessarily guarantee insurance payouts of all that money - but they would be entitled to something.

If events never take place and money comes back to the broadcasters there would then be a discussion about goodwill refunds. But with the crisis changing dramatically from day to day, speculating when that might happen or to what extent is impossible.