FA Cup
By acquiring the UK operations of ESPN, BT found itself in the curious position of being the incumbent pay tv broadcaster of the FA cup - despite never having broadcast a game. The existing deal still has a season to run, so if BT lost it - they would have had a significant drop in live football matches for their second season. In the event, they retained it for a further four years. Some reports suggest they paid double what Sky were willing to pay. From 2014 BT will broadcast the FA community shield live, it formerly being on ITV.
Football League
Just a month before the new season, the football league found itself without a title sponsor, with npower choosing not to renew. Also, they had previously sold their TV rights at the bottom of the market - when the BBC were reducing their sporting spend and before BT had entered the market. Fast forward to this week, and the knights in shining armour at Sky have solved both problems for them. Sky bet will be the new title sponser of the league; and Sky Sports have extended their deal to cover the Football League and League Cup for a further three years. This locks BT out of the lower leagues for five years.
International football
A few weeks back, with little fanfare, Sky grabbed a significant new deal. UEFA now sell World Cup and Euro qualifiers on a central basis. Marketed as UEFAs Week of Football, international qualifiers will be played over six days (wed to mon), with each team playing two games in that period. As a major market, UEFA wanted England qualifiers (home and away) to remain on free to air tv, so ITV will show those. Sky Sports will show every other European qualifier, probably in a similar style to their champions league coverage.
The Premier League
The basics of the deal starting in August are that Sky have 116 games, BT have 38. Sky have twenty "top picks" from the 38 rounds, for the Sunday 4pm slot. Importantly, Sky get to choose which weekends to use their top picks. BT have the top pick for the remaining 18 rounds, some of these are for midweek games (which include a clash between Manchester United and Arsenal). As part of an alleged "strangle at birth" strategy, Sky have grabbed all the games between the "top four" until November. But BT will have a much stronger second half of the season, and this battle was never going to be over by Christmas.
European Football
The next big battle on the TV rights front will be for the UEFA Champions League. Expect ITV to retain its single match, but BT should be serious bidders and may grab some of the games that sky currently broadcast.
Like the FA cup, BT finds itself as incumbent broadcaster of the Europa League. From 2015, the winners get into the Champions League, so expect this much derided tournament to gain some well needed status. BT should retain it, maybe taking the second pick game off ITV.
Other broadcasters
The BBC have the FA cup back, after an absence of six years. This will be the first time the BBC has had a contract with the Premier League, The FA and Football League - at the same time. It adds some much needed live football to their season. ITV has the mixed blessing of covering England Friendlies.