Neither Sky nor BT Sport are offering refunds to subscribers for the lack of live Premier League, EFL, Champions League and other competitions to which they have TV rights, as broadcasters grapple with the mass postponement of sports due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Both companies are reworking their schedules as well as they can, including any live sport which does carry on, and hoping that the postponement of the major football competitions does not last beyond the first weekend in April as provisionally scheduled.

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BT Sport is planning to show reruns of matches already played this season, WWE, which is taking place behind closed doors, films, documentaries and other sports which continue. The broadcasters’ current position is that as, so far, only two rounds of Premier League and Championship matches have been postponed before the scheduled international break later this month, and Uefa has postponed only next week’s Champions and Europa League matches, they hope to resume broadcasting their main sports before too long.

Sources at both companies have made it clear they are not currently moving to refund subscribers for the loss of the live sports they have bought up at great expense to attract them.

Sky Sports managing director, Rob Webster, said in a statement: “Sky Sports is working closely with all our partners to better understand the impact on the annual sporting calendar. We recognise that it is a fast-moving situation and we are working at speed to ensure we continue to deliver for all of our customers. A number of sporting events have been postponed, but not cancelled, so we expect to be able to show these when they are rescheduled. Therefore, our live schedule is likely to look different for a period of time. As more information becomes available, we will continue to provide updates to all of our customers.”

A BT spokesman said in a statement: “We apologise to customers about the changes to the BT Sport schedule this month due to the impact of Covid-19. The situation is evolving rapidly and we are working with the leagues to continue to broadcast live sport wherever possible and broadcast games when they are rescheduled over the coming months. We will continue to broadcast a wide range of BT Sport content including films and documentaries and we will update our customers as we have a clearer view of the remainder of the season.”

The company announced on Thursday that its own chief executive, Philip Jansen, has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating as the crisis develops.

“BT is now working closely with Public Health England to undertake a full deep clean of relevant parts of its group headquarters and will ensure those employees who have had contact with Philip are appropriately advised,” the company said.

Jansen himself said he had met “several industry partners this week, so felt it was the responsible thing to do to alert them to this fact as soon as I could”.