Sky Sports have claimed that BT Sport have paid "far in excess" of the real valuation for their rights to broadcast Champions League and Europa League football.
The 2013-launched channel pulled off a major coup this week, albeit an expensive one, when they bid £898m to exclusively show both competitions for three years, starting from the 2015-16 season.
However, Sky Sports believe that their rivals have overpaid for the privilege to broadcast Europe's biggest football competitions, insisting that they would have matched BT Sport's offer if they thought that the product was worth it.
A Sky Sports statement read: "We bid with a clear view of what the rights are worth to us. It seems BT chose to pay far in excess of our valuation.
"There are many ways in which we can invest in our service for customers. We take a disciplined approach and there is always a level at which we will choose to focus on something else. If we thought it was worth more, we'd have paid more.
"Nothing changes until 2015 and we look forward to 18 more months of live Champions League on Sky Sports. We will now re-deploy resources and continue to bring customers the best choice of TV across our offering."
Sky Sports have shown the Champions League since 1992.
Joe Fish
