BT could mount its own FA Cup challenge with the string of footballers assembled to launch its sports channels. As would-be giant-slayers Setanta and ESPN learned to their cost, taking on Sky is clearly not something to be done without backup.

In the BT camp, broadcasting from the Olympic park, are presenters and pundits Rio Ferdinand, David James and Michael Owen, while Gareth Bale and Robin van Persie are among those who will front an advertising blitz that involves taking over almost as many newspaper pages as were devoted to Sir Alex Ferguson's resignation.

Across town in Sky's west London headquarters, Jamie Redknapp and the hugely popular Gary Neville will lead the satellite broadcaster's defence.

Underpinning BT's heavyweight offering is lightweight pricing. Having committed £1bn over three years to rights, talent, studios and marketing for its channels, BT has taken everyone by surprise in deciding to give them away to its own customers. Sensing a price war, City traders wiped millions off the market values of rival companies but sent BT's stock to a five-year high.

Is this dramatic entry into sports broadcasting the "game changer" that BT's advertising slogan claims, or will it prove as over-hyped as an England World Cup campaign?

More importantly for consumers, will BT Sport's arrival ultimately lead to an unravelling of the pay-TV model so profitably exploited by Sky and Virgin, whose customers are forced to buy a series of entertainment channels before being given access to the sports content that they really want?

BT chief executive Ian Livingston's answer to the last question is an emphatic "no". His offering will be an alternative to the sell-through model, but will not replace it. Such is the Premiership's grip that most Sky subscribers will stay put. And it is worth noting that for many homes, BT Sport will not be entirely free.

Those 1m plus Sky TV customers who have not yet been persuaded to switch their broadband from BT to the satellite broadcaster will get the new channels at no extra cost. These are broadband customers BT very much wants to hold on to, and some may even be tempted to leave Sky altogether. BT's existing TV customers will also pay nothing.

But for everyone else, there will be charges. The choice will be to buy a BT set-top box for £199, or pay £5 a month plus £49 installation for the basic TV package. The only way to avoid the cost of a box is to use the BT Sport app, which will broadcast the channels live. But while BT has made the app available for tablets, phones and computers, hooking it up to the TV will be too fiddly for most people.

This is because unlike the BBC iPlayer, BT's app does not yet run directly on the Apple TV box, or games consoles like the Nintendo Wii, or on Samsung and Sony's internet-connected television sets.

This feels like a missed opportunity. Younger viewers comfortable with the idea of plugging their sets into the web might like to avoid littering their living room with yet another set-top box. Many homes already select films and TV shows from digital libraries provided by Netflix or iTunes. Sport has yet to make that transition. But the day is slowly dawning when we choose channels one by one from a menu of apps rather than a bundle offered by the electronic programme guide.

Should BT decide to make its app easily accessible from the main screen in the house, we may have the makings of a digitally driven pay-TV revolution.

But there will be time to adapt distribution. BT's offering is no Setanta-style debt-funded gamble. It appears to be a long-term commitment to quality coverage of a wide range of men's and women's competitions, at a price most homes can afford. Managed well, it has the potential to become a national asset.

Heat's still on for Centrica

Sam Laidlaw will have mixed feelings about the Centrica annual general meeting tomorrow. On one hand, he will be basking in the admiration of those investors fixated on equity value. On the other hand, he will have to put up with endless questions about executive pay levels, fuel poverty and the usual personal gripes about boiler breakdowns or other such matters.

Centrica's share price has hit record highs in recent weeks, with the City falling back in love after the company ditched any commitment to building new nuclear capacity. The British Gas owner has since delighted the analysts by getting involved in significant deals such as the recent one with Cheniere Energy to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US.

This is a cork-popper because Cheniere is the only company that has so far won permission to export American LNG. Laidlaw now has access to some of these new low-cost shale gas supplies – but that does not mean he has to bring them to Britain.He may please investors – but not consumers – by shipping the gas, from 2018, to Japan or China, where import prices are considerably higher even than the UK's.

Laidlaw will also be asked whether he will join the fracking revolution in Britain. He will insist he has no plans, given that this country has yet to discover whether there really are huge, easily exploitable reserves.

What he will not say – but is true – is that British Gas has enough image issues already without becoming a target for the anti-frackers. Laidlaw's pay, and more importantly that of outgoing retail boss Phil Bentley's, is a particularly sensitive issue at a time of rising prices and growing fuel poverty.

There could also be the odd question about whether he is convinced the regulators will find the wider industry squeaky clean when they complete their review of the wholesale gas market. It will probably be a lengthy session, and one that will test Laidlaw's Old Etonian public charm to the limit.

Google faces a grilling

Margaret Hodge MP, the scourge of the tax engineers, will be limbering up this weekend for another blistering charge at key figures in the tax avoidance debate. She has asked Google's UK head, Matt Brittin, to reappear before the public accounts committee on Thursday.

He will be joined by John Dixon, Ernst & Young's head of tax, and the two are expected to face questioning over the impression of the extent of Google's UK business activities Google carries out in the UK both men gave in recent hearings. "Nobody [in the UK] is selling," Brittin said.

Dixon will be asked to revisit his remarks about how closely E&Y, as Google auditor, scrutinises such companies to ensure fair reporting of UK business activities to HMRC.

Doubtless Brittin and Dixon will have their legally crafted response well-rehearsed. They may be made to look daft, but will hold the line. Perhaps more interesting will be whether any MPs choose to raise the same matter with the following witness, HMRC boss Lin Homer.

Homer's French counterparts took a much more robust approach in the case of Google, and have won praise for it. The company's activities in the UK, and its position in English law, may make for a different set of circumstances, but Homer may yet end up facing the hardest questions of all.