BT has picked up live rights for English football Premier League games from the 2013/2014 season through to 2015/16 at a cost of €200.3 million per year.

The UK-based operator will show 38 games a season, which will cover a quarter of the fixtures shown on TV each year.

As part of its first foray into live football broadcasting, BT is due to launch a new football-focused channel carrying matches.

The new channel will provide interactive features through BT's fibre network and the company is also looking to distribute it over other platforms.

A deposit thought to be worth around €17.9 million will be paid by BT this month, followed by six instalments of about €97.7 million from August 2013, continuing every January and August until January 2016.

Financial markets didn't take kindly to the news; BT's shares were down 3.5 percent as trading closed on June 14.

However, BT CEO Ian Livingston indicated the deal was a natural evolution of its broadband strategy.

"BT is already investing £2.5 billion [€2.04 billion] in fibre broadband. Securing Premier League rights fits naturally with this, as consumers increasingly want to buy their broadband and entertainment services from a single provider," he said.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore added: "We welcome BT as a new Premier League broadcast partner. They are a substantial British company that is at the leading edge of technology and infra-structure development.

"They are clearly investing in quality content to use on their platforms and when combined with the reach and pull of Premier League football they will deliver new ways in which fans will be able to follow the competition."