BT Sport will rebrand as TNT Sports this summer as part of the broadcaster’s merger with Warner Bros Discovery, the company that owns Discovery and Eurosport brands.
The joint venture between Warner Bros Discovery and BT Group was announced in February last year and TNT, which already shows football, golf and motor racing in the US and South America, has now been confirmed as the new name ahead of a rebrand before the next football season starts.
It is understood that TV channel numbers will not change for existing subscribers, and fears over price hikes have also been allayed with sources telling i that online viewers who currently pay £29.99 a month will get the same deal for the 2023-24 season, and will also continue to receive complimentary access to discovery+.
It means BT Sport subscribers will have access to Champions League football and the existing Premier League package, as well as Discovery’s Olympics coverage, two of tennis’s four grand slams and range of snooker and cycling coverage.
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TV subscribers are unlikely to notice many changes, with price rises not anticipated at least initially, and Eurosport will remain available “in the same way as it is today” before eventually being rolled into the TNT Sports brand, bringing to an end a stay of more than 30 years on UK television.
The BT Sport app, through which subscribers are able to purchase a monthly pass to watch the channels on desktop, mobile and tablet, will be scrapped and folded into the discovery+ platform, where sports fans will either have a choice of paying £6.99 to watch sports currently shown by Discovery (tennis, golf, snooker) or £29.99 to add European football, Premiership rugby, UFC and some boxing to that package through TNT.
According to the Daily Mail, pundits like Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen and Robbie Savage are still under contract for the rest of BT’s Premier League deal, which has another two years to run, but more than 200 staff at BT’s Stratford base are reportedly being asked to reapply for their jobs and relocate to Warner Bros Discovery’s offices in Chiswick and Stockley Park, with as many as 50 redundancies said to be expected.
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