Independent: Why is BT Sport being rebranded to TNT Sports? Eurosport merger explained

Story from Independent:

BT Sport will disappear from television screens in the United Kingdom in July as the channel rebrands to TNT Sports, with Premier League football, Champions League football and Premiership Rugby next season to be shown on the new channel.

The renaming follows the purchase of BT Sport by Warner Bros Discovery, which also owns Eurosport.

In time, the two channels will be brought together under the TNT Sports brand, with fans able to watch top football, rugby, tennis and Olympic sport action all under one banner.

For now, though, Eurosport will remain distinct - the channel is the lead rightsholder for the Paris 2024 Olympics in the UK and Ireland.

What is BT Sport and what sports does the channel show?

• Launched in August 2013, BT Sport is a group of paid television sports channels available in the UK and Republic of Ireland. It shows sports including Premier League and Champions League football, Premiership and Champions Cup rugby, cricket from Australia and New Zealand and MotoGP. --What is Warner Bros Discovery and when was a merger agreed?

• Warner Bros Discovery and BT Group announced last year that they had reached an agreement to form a joint venture that will eventually merge the Eurosport and BT Sport channels and portfolios. Warner Bros Discovery is a multinational mass media conglomerate that operates many of the world’s biggest television brands, including CNN and HBO.

What is TNT Sports?

• TNT Sports will be a familiar brand to those in Latin America, where it is the home of top-level domestic and European football. From July 2023, the channel will now have a dedicated brand in the UK and Ireland ahead of the start of the 2023/24 football season.

• “The TNT Sports name is already synonymous with premium live sports in a number of countries around the world and a further sign of the global scale and expertise that Warner Bros Discovery brings to the partnership with BT,” Andrew Georgiou, managing director of Warner Bros Discovery Sports Europe, explained of the decision to rebrand.

What does this mean for BT Sport subscribers?

• No price changes have yet been flagged for existing subscribers to BT Sport, but nor have they been ruled out ahead of the rebrand. For television viewers, BT Sport is expected to simply become TNT Sports, with no new channel to tune in to.

• For those who watch regularly via the BT Sport app, discovery+ will be the new live streaming home of the rebranded channel. BT Sport subscribers already enjoy complimentary access to discovery+ which includes Eurosport’s streaming offer and wide range of entertainment programming.

What sports will I be able to watch on the new channel after the merger is complete?

• The merger will allow sports fans to watch many of the world’s biggest sporting events all under one channel banner. These include: the Olympic Games, the Premier League, Champions League, Europa League, Premiership Rugby, MotoGP, UFC, Boxing, WWE, tennis Grand Slams, cycling Grand Tours and the winter sports season.