BT complaints double after Sport launch

BT’s ad campaign for BT Sport

BT TV was the most complained-about pay TV service in the UK during the third quarter, following the launch of its new sports channel line-up, according to broadcast regulator Ofcom. 

In its Q3 telecoms and pay TV complaints study, Ofcom said that it received the most complaints about BT TV, with 0.56 complaints per 1,000 subscribers – more than double the 0.26 complaints per 1,000 it logged in the previous quarter.

BT TV complaints peaked in August, when almost half were about BT Sport, which went live on August 1, said Ofcom.

In a statement, BT acknowledged the problems and apologised to BT TV customers who “suffered poor service during the summer.”

“The main reason for this was the unprecedented volume of interest in BT Sport and our efforts to provide availability on multiple TV platforms in a very short space of time,” said a BT spokesperson.

“During the 14 weeks from launch until the start of the football season in August, we provided BT Sport to more than 1 million homes over satellite, digital terrestrial TV, broadband multicast TV and the digital app. While these complaints represent a fraction of 1% of those customers, we are disappointed with the result and we accept that we failed to reach the high standards that customers expect from BT during these weeks.

“We are now seeing much reduced complaints figures, back to the levels we saw prior to the BT Sport launch,” the spokesperson added.

In Q3, Ofcom said that Virgin Media’s complaints were 0.05 per 1,000 customers, below the industry average of 0.06. Sky had the lowest number of complaints at 0.02 per 1,000 customers.