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BT befriends Google's lonely TV dongle – and saves YouView

Chromecast gets footie

BT is to make Premier League football available on Google's Chromecast TV platform, in a huge filip for the platform.

Google started selling Chromecast in the UK last month - here's our review. While Chromecast bundles the usual OTTs (Over The Top) services including Netflix and YouTube, the only UK broadcaster support so far has come from BBC iPlayer.

The caveat, unsurprisingly, is that only BT Broadband customers will be able to view the footie via Chromecast. BSkyB has unbundled itself and offers an OTT version of its material to the dishless and cable-free households, via Now TV. This entails a streaming box (the standalone cost is under a tenner), with either five sports day passes, or five months of Sky Movies, for £34.99.

BT this week helped assure the future development of YouView for another five years, after the broadcaster shareholders slashed their commitment to the platform. The BBC-born set-top box once known as "Project Canvas" has soaked up an estimated £140m in development costs over the years.

TalkTalk and BT have stepped up their funding, promising another £100m over five years. Almost all of the 1 million YouView boxes in use have been bundled with BT and TalkTalk broadband.

The broadcasters are now backing a new platform called FreeView Connect, which has yet to be officially announced, but is likely to be built into TVs next year. ®

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