But I don’t subscribe!?

You do now!  No, seriously, you do!

It doesn’t matter anymore – you’re in.  One way or another, from 2nd April 2017, all BT customers, whether you take phone, broadband or any other BT service will be forced to chip in an extra payment each and every month to fund the ludicrous £1.2bn paid by BT Sport for Champions League football rights for the next few seasons.

But why aren’t they simply increasing the price of BT Sport?

They have.  Lots.

And the fact is, the raw customer data is now showing them that if they increase the cost of BT Sport anymore, they will actually start proportionally losing more customers than is compensated for by the increase in revenue.

So naturally, as any good-for-nothing company then goes and does, they see whether they can pick pocket their other loyal customers to get them to pay over the odds for a service that they neither want nor receive.

Now, I’m a football fan – but no one in this country, football fan or otherwise, can actually justify the ludicrous sums of money that companies like BT are paying for one of the most over priced commodities in the land.

Stop whining!  It’s capitalism / the free market.

I’m a fan of capitalism and the free market as much as the next man, but actually, the assertion that this is capitalism or the free market is completely and utterly factually incorrect.

The price paid for the goods and services in question, i.e. Champions League football for 3 seasons, are actually not worth what is being paid for them.

In business terms – paying this much for this deal would be seen as total and utter business suicide.  Remember, ITV Digital?

The fact is, to fund these kinds of horrific and quite frankly sickening deals, BT Sports subscribers would actually have to be paying 3, 4, 5 maybe even 6 times what they are currently paying.  They could easily, justifiably be paying £100/month or more – and it still probably wouldn’t be enough.

Of course, even the most dedicated football fan isn’t going to do this – after all, everyone has their limits – even if it is their passion.

That’s why everyone has to pay.

It’s hardly a large increase!?

Well, actually 8% is a pretty large increase.  Particularly as the previous years inflation was scraping around 1.0%.

And that’s not all, BT are at the same time withdrawing discounts for existing customers as their deals come to an end leading to up to 50% increase in price for existing customers on special deals.

And, this is in the context of 4 or 5 times inflation increases by BT year after year.  They’re making a complete killing – and it’s at your expense.

They’ve frozen the price of line rental – what more do you want?

That’s nice of them.  After all, they have been hiking it for years – so one years freeze still leaves you massively out of pocket.

And we do have to remember that actually the majority of line rental customers don’t even want the ‘service’.

And the fact that despite, over recent years, the cost to telecoms companies of providing a line has decreased 75%, this hasn’t stopped them hiking the price, well above inflation, year after year.

In fact, between 2010 – 2016 – despite the wholesale cost of providing phone lines to customers decreasing by 21.3%, BT actually chose over the same period to increase the cost of lines to it’s customers by 23.3%.

No ones losing out though?

No, you’re right.  No one’s losing out.  Oh…. except…

EVERYONE!

Why?  Well for a start, the vulnerable, elderly and poor are now paying a fortune (that they cannot afford) for an average service which in many cases – may literally – be a lifeline.

But if the death of an older relative that can’t contact anybody because their landline was cut off when they couldn’t afford the extortionate bills anymore isn’t enough to convince you then…

Whether we like it or not – when deals like this are signed, people die.

Don’t be stupid…. Football causes deaths?

Nope, not football itself, but deals like this do.

Because guess what – the more we pay to football organisations for TV rights, the more they pay their players and….

The more the players are paid, the less tax they pay!

Remember, footballers are not like us – they only have to pay the amount of tax that they feel they should (which is usually none/very little) rather than the actual amount of tax they owe.

Don’t believe me?  Fortunately for you, you don’t have to:

• HMRC chief calls for tax crackdown on Premier League footballers
• 43 Premier League footballers investigated over possible tax avoidance
• Nearly 200 footballers are facing an HMRC probe for using an ‘image rights tax dodge’ to cut their bills – including the majority of the English National Football Team.  
• Wayne Rooney’s tax bill from crackdown on an ‘avoidance scheme he was part of” could top £5 million
• Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho have avoiding paying tax on ‘millions of dollars’ by channeling money abroad, according to claims in leaked documents.   
• Footballers tax avoidance depends on corrupt global structures
• UK footballers from Rooney to Durie hung out to dry in film fund tax dodges
• Rangers football club tax avoidance case reaches Supreme Court
• Former Manchester United and Arsenal stars ‘face ruin’ after failed investments reaching £100m
• Celtic chief Peter Lawwell among club figures linked to £434million tax dodge
• Footballers pay 22% tax thanks to loophole

And the list goes on and on and on….

All this ‘avoided’ / evaded tax means that your local hospitals close, your council tax bill rockets, public services get savaged.  You know the austerity script by now I’m sure.

What should I do?

Tell BT to shove their price rises and football rights where the sun doesn’t shine and move to a provider that isn’t going to rinse you and might actually provide you with semi-decent telecoms service!