BT Vision has announced that Clare Balding is to join its roster of presenters for the launch of the new channels later this year.
The former BBC horse racing presenter was one of the media stars of the London Olympics, heading the team presenting at the Aquatic Centre and coming to global prominence with her interview of Chad Clos of South Africa after his son had won gold.
She excelled anchoring the C4 coverage of the Paralympics and recently switched to become the new face of C4 Racing as it commenced exclusive coverage of all mainstream UK horse racing.
To add to her own star quality Balding is also fronting a primetime Saturday night quiz show on BBC1.
The signing is another coup for BT Vision as they pull together a package of rights in Barclays Premier League Soccer, Aviva Premiership Rugby and WTA Women’s tennis that will make them the most serious contender to go up against Sky since the launch of that operation 20 years ago.
It is unlikely that the rights buying will stop either with football from across Europe and the Americas also being snapped up from the start of next season.
BT is primarily a telecoms company and its broadband packages are likely to be greatly enhanced by the content they may now be able to stream online.
The company already has a strong presence in Ireland with offices in Dublin and Belfast and a long term sponsorship of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition at the RDS in January.  The company also supported Irish Gymnast Kieran Behan on his road to the Olympics last year.
BT attended last year’s Sport for Business 20/20 event and may yet become a more important player in Irish sport than it has already been.  It is committed to raising the profile of women’s sport and will show 800 hours a year of live women’s tennis from the WTA tour as part of this when the two new sports channels launch in July.
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