BT Sport rebrands as TNT Sports
As of today BT Sport is replaced with TNT Sports as a brand, following the completion of a joint venture between BT and Warner Bros Discovery.
The two firms completed their transaction to create as single entity combining the assets of BT Sport and Eurosport UK in September last year.
It was explained at the time that BT Sport and Eurosport UK will be merged into a single sports joint operation covering the UK and Ireland, which will have the Olympic Games, the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, the Premier League, Premiership Rugby, MotoGP, UFC, Boxing, WWE, tennis Grand Slams, cycling Grand Tours and the winter sports World Cup season on its books.
TNT Sports will be streamed on Discovery+ in the UK and is accompanied by a website for sports news. In terms of existing BT Sport customers, access via BT TV, Sky, and Virgin Media will automatically commence from today, apparently.
Customers who use the BT Sport App can watch TNT Sports via that until it disappears later this year. They can also download the Discovery+ app which will give them access to TNT Sports and Eurosport – BT has put out some more specific information with regards to that sort of thing here.
We were told at the time of the completed deal that the first Chairperson of the JV is Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s Consumer division, while Andrew Georgiou, President and Managing Director of Warner Bros Discovery Sports Europe will ‘lead the business.’ The latter said today:
“We are hugely excited to launch TNT Sports across the UK and Republic of Ireland. TNT Sports goes live with a new and contemporary brand, a fabulous new and exciting line-up of talent, great value for viewers as well as flexible ways to buy and watch.
“From today, fans can watch TNT Sports in the same places they enjoyed BT Sport and without any interruption to their access. In addition, with TNT Sports now on discovery+ in the UK we can begin to deliver a simple and even more compelling offer that appeals to the whole household, combining more live sport together with entertainment. We believe this is an exceptional value proposition for fans offering a compelling combination of sport and entertainment that is unique to discovery+.”
The initial announcement of this deal stated that BT will receive £93 million from Warner Bros Discovery (payable in instalments over the three years following transaction completion) and up to a £540 million by way of an earn-out from the JV during the earn-out period, subject to certain conditions being met.
While the deal was initially described as a 50:50 sports broadcasting joint venture, it can be seen as part of a trend of telecoms firms having a rethink about their approach to diversifying into media, following Orange’s moves to sell off its content division to Canal + group in January and AT&T’s sale of WarnerMedia last year.
Get the latest news straight to your inbox. Register for the Telecoms.com newsletter here.