BT faces the prospect of losing thousands of subscribers after walking away from the rights to broadcast two of their key sports.

They will no longer show NBA and UFC ultimate fighting having already lost Italian Serie A football a few weeks ago to newcomers Eleven Sports who had bought the rights to LaLiga from Sky Sports two days earlier.

A BT Sport spokesman told the BBC: “We won’t bid any more than the rights are worth to us.”

They will continue to show NBA Basketball until the end of October and UFC until 3 December.

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The firm spends around £1bn a year on sports rights, such as Premier League and Champions League football and a spokesman insisted it was now focusing on gaining more subscribers for its offering as well as “investing in more broadcast innovations.”

They said “long-term deals are in place for our core content” including “great football, rugby and boxing next season”.

Marc Allera, head of BT Consumer, told the Financial Times that the strategy for BT Sport – which launched five years ago – had moved on from its initial “emotionally driven start-up mentality”.

“It’s like a big football club in the transfer window. If a striker is worth £50m I won’t pay £70m for him. At the wrong price, everything is expendable,” he said.

Shareholders have been agitated for some time about the cost and direction of BT Sport, something which in part led to the departure of chief executive Gavin Patterson last month.

Mr Patterson led BT for five years and under his direction the firm established itself as a major sports broadcaster, with the rights to screen a significant number of Premier League games.

Last month, Neil Wilson, chief market analyst for Markets.com, said BT’s “expensive move into football rights was a mistake”, because it had failed to lead to a rise in new subscribers for the firm’s TV offering.