Warner Bros, Discovery, and BT Joint Venture will rebrand TNT Sports before it launches in the UK and Ireland
The TNT name will replace the BT Sport moniker and will launch later this year to bring together the partners’ collection of sports rights under one service.
The name of the premium sports brand that will launch later this year to combine the partners’ collection of sports rights under one service has been revealed by the U.K. and Ireland sports joint venture of Warner Bros. Discovery and telecom giant BT Group: TNT Sports.
TNT Sports will take over the BT Sport brand in July, just in time for the start of the 2023–2024 soccer season. The renamed service will continue to offer the live sports rights currently offered by BT Sport. Following discussions with its distribution partners, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Eurosport in the U.K. and Ireland “will continue to be available in the same way it is today before being rolled into the new brand at some point in the future.”
Also earlier the start of the soccer season though, “Discovery+ will become the streaming home for sports fans who can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport, and entertainment in one destination,” the joint venture partners highlighted. “BT Sport subscribers already enjoy complimentary access to Discovery+, which includes Eurosport’s streaming offer and wide range of entertainment programming.”
According to Andrew Georgiou, a board member of the joint venture and president and managing director of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, the announcement of the new brand name is “another important step towards the launch of a simpler and even more compelling offering for sports fans in the U.K. and Ireland.” “The TNT Sports name is already associated with premium live sport in a number of nations around the world and is yet another indication of the global scope and knowledge that Warner Bros. Discovery brings to its partnership with BT.”
We’re thrilled with the progress being made on the joint venture, said Marc Allera, CEO of BT Consumer and chairman of the joint venture. This modification represents BT Sport’s logical next step as well as the broader transformation of our consumer business. Once launched this will become a hugely exciting new premium sports offering for customers in the U.K. and Ireland.”
The TNT Sports brand wants to reflect “the fan-first approach for which BT Sport has become renowned,” but “the name already has a strong association with premium live sport in other territories and under Warner Bros. Discovery’s family of brands,” the venture partners said. “This includes being home to top-level domestic and European football in a number of countries in Latin America, while the live sport has been a longtime staple on the TNT network in the U.S, including the NBA, NHL, and NCAA.”
Talking to reporters on Tuesday, Allera emphasized one key goal of the rebranding process. “The thing we want to ensure is minimal customer disruption and maximum excitement,” he said.
Georgiou told reporters about the key thoughts behind the decision to go with the TNT Sports name. “The new brand has to honor the essence of what BT Sport and Eurosport have built in this market,” he explained. “BT Sport in particular, because it has content which is more broadly engaging to the audience here, it has got a broader content proposition. They speak to a large number of local consumers and making sure we don’t lose that was the number one priority. The second part is the brand has to be flexible enough to capture both portfolios. It has to signify an expansion and … change. And the third criterion was that it has to be local. So making sure that there was a clean slate, if you like, for what this is was an important part of the decision-making process.”
For Warner Bros. Discovery, the TNT Sports brand fits into its focus on running a global business. “We are a global content and entertainment business, and we are, through the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, thinking about our business globally and what global scale, strength, and capability can bring.” Georgiou also mentioned: “We think there is some value in having global consistency around a sports brand that is synonymous with sports, and premium sports in particular.”
But he also highlighted that right now the TNT Sports name is still little known in Britain and Ireland. “Based on the surveys that we have done in this market, this brand has limited awareness. No one in this market actually knows what this brand means,” he explained but described this as an opportunity. “This is a clean slate. There are people in the industry who might know the heritage of what the letters TNT stand for or what TNT means in the U.S. or Latin America, but the British and Irish consumer has no clue. So for them, this is a clean slate, and having that clean slate for us means being able to make sure we can imbue this brand over time with some of those brand principles that I talked about.”
“Make no mistake: Warner Bros. Discovery is driving the entity as BT takes another step towards distancing itself from the sports business,” Pescatore said in reference to the labor allocation between the venture partners.