Discovery And BT In Talks Over UK Sport Venture

Discovery and BT Sport are in talks to combine and create a UK sport venture.

The proposed JV will see Discovery bring together its long-established Eurosport business in the UK and Ireland with BT Sport. It comes fresh off the back of rumors that Kevin Mayer’s DAZN was chasing a BT Sports acquisition, with reports floating a price tag of around $800M.

Pending regulatory approval, the two companies want the JV to be up-and-running later this year. The combined entity would bring together coverage of the Olympics, football’s Premier League, UEFA Champions League and major events in other sports such as cycling and tennis. Eurosport has all the European rights to the Beijing Winter Olympics, which kicks off properly tomorrow.

Discovery acquired Eurosport in 2014 and said it now produces and distributes content to more than 130M people a month across 200 markets.

BT Sport also today extended a crucial channel supply deal with Sky, which will boost its distribution until at least 2030.

“We are excited about this opportunity with BT Group to offer consumers a stronger and simplified combined sport offering in the U.K. and Ireland, and, more broadly, to advance our strategy of bringing sports and entertainment to more consumers on the platform of their choice,” said JB Perrette, President & CEO of Discovery Streaming & International. “We are aligned with BT Group on a shared vision to maximize the value and appeal of our respective UK sport assets, and we look forward to concluding a deal in the coming weeks.”

The news comes a few weeks after Discovery and AT&T were given European regulatory approval for Discovery to acquire WarnerMedia, one of the most highly-anticipated M&A deals of this century.