BT Group (BT) has won the broadcast rights for Europe's largest soccer tournament for a second time, but the heavy price for a relatively small victory still leaves it with a fierce battle for pay-TV customers in Britain.

The U.K.'s biggest telecoms, broadband and pay-TV group saw off competition from Rupert Murdoch-backed Sky plc (SKYAY) and a series of smaller rivals to clinch the £1.18 billion ($1.47 billion) deal Monday, which gives it the broadcast rights for UEFA Champion's League Football for another three years. The £394 million annual cost is a 30% premium to the price it paid three years ago.

Broadcast rights costs for UEFA Champion's League Football have nearly tripled from where they were before 2013, when BT first made waves with its entrance into the pay-tv space. In the 2010 to 2013 period, both Sky and ITV (ITVPF) shared the UEFA rights while the cost was set at just less than £400 million for the entire three year period.

BT originally took a gamble on pay-tv as part of an effort to fend off increasing competition in the home broadband market, by offering sports television content in a bundle with broadband and telephone subscription.

The expansion helped to alter the narrative around BT stock, shifting it from one of a company in long term decline, to one that had 'growth story' behind it while helping fuel a multi-year rally in the share price.

While the Brexit vote, an accounting scandal and pressures on international revenues brought an end to the rally of the share price, the pending merger between Sky and Twenty-First Century Fox (FOX) - Get Report could be about to obliterate whatever else might remain of that positive narrative surrounding BT.

Fox took its first step toward a $14 billion altar last week when it formally notified the European Commission of its bid for the 61% of Sky that it does not already own.

If the Murdoch controlled powerhouse is successful in its pursuit of Sky, then Europe's largest satellite television firm could find itself with access to a much broader audience than BT in addition to a potentially larger book of advertisers and a much larger balance sheet.

This is while BT is facing conflict on all fronts that could hinder its operational and financial capacity to compete with a more aggressive Sky.

With Sky and pay-tv subscribers set aside, BT unveiled a £503 million exceptional charge in December relating to improper management practices in its Italian business, which placed a question mark over the grip the group management have over the business and prompted a 25% drop in the company's share price.

This is while, and more importantly, BT faces a U.K. government and industry push to force a separation or sale of its core broadband infrastructure division, OpenReach.

OpenReach owns the pipes and telephone cables that keep the U.K. connected. It also accounts for 25% of BT's operating free cash flow and a quarter of the group's enterprise value.

Regulators ordered BT, late last year, to establish an independent management team for OpenReach and to ring-fence it as a separate legal entity, in a move that was seen by some in the analyst community as a precursor to a forced divestment.

BT shares were marked 0.17% higher at 333.17 pence each in London Monday, against a broader 0.3% decline for the FTSE 100 benchmark. Sky shares were little-changed at 996.5 pence each by 09:45 GMT.