| TNT Sports | |
| Launch Date: | 1 August 2013 |
| Former Names: | BT Sport (2013–2023) |
| Picture Format: | 2160p UHDTV 1080i HDTV |
| Country: | United Kingdom, Ireland |
| Area: | United Kingdom Ireland |
| Headquarters: | Chiswick Park, London |
| Sister Channels: | Eurosport 1 Eurosport 2 TNT Sports 1 TNT Sports 2 TNT Sports 3 TNT Sports 4 TNT Sports Box Office |
| Online Serv 1: | BT Player |
| Online Chan 1: | Watch live (1, UK only) Watch live (2, UK only) Watch live (3, UK only) Watch live (4, UK only) |
| Online Serv 2: | Virgin TV Go |
| Online Chan 2: | Watch live |
| Online Serv 3: | Now TV |
| Online Chan 3: | Watch live |
TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as BT Sport on 1 August 2013.
The channels are based at Warner Bros. Discovery's complex in Chiswick Business Park, London, having been based at Here East, the former International Broadcast Centre in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London until July 2023.[1] The channels are available on the EE TV, Sky and Virgin Media television platforms in the UK and Sky and Vodafone TV in the Republic of Ireland.
The networks were established in 2013 after BT Group's acquisition of rights to the Premier League. BT also acquired the operations of previous rightsholder ESPN prior to launch, integrating them with BT Sport. In 2022, BT Group announced an agreement with Warner Media to form a joint venture that would eventually merge BT Sport with its local Eurosport business. The transaction was approved in July 2022 and on 18 July 2023 BT Sport rebranded as TNT Sports, with Eurosport UK to be folded into the brand no later than early-2026.[2] [3]
News of BT's first foray into sports broadcasting first came about on 12 June 2012, when it was announced that it had won the rights to 38 live Premier League matches for three seasons from the 2013–14 season, beating ESPN UK, which had held the shared rights with Sky Sports the previous season. BT announced at the same time that it would be launching its own channel for its new football coverage.[4] The news followed speculation that ESPN was reconsidering its position in the UK.[5] The following months also saw BT win rights to Premiership Rugby and its associated 7s Series, as well as American, Brazilian, French and Italian top-flight football.[6] [7]
On 25 February 2013, BT announced an agreement to acquire ESPN's television networks in the UK and Ireland, including ESPN and international sports channel ESPN America; this agreement gave BT rights to the FA Cup beginning in 2013–14, the Bundesliga and UEFA Europa League through 2015, and the Scottish Premier League through 2017, as well as other international event rights licensed through ESPN. The value of the deal was not disclosed, but BT was understood to be paying "low tens of millions". The deal was expected to close by 31 July, and BT was expected to operate at least one ESPN-branded channel as part of the BT Sport service.[8]
BT made other notable rights deals ahead of BT Sport's launch, including UFC mixed martial arts under a three-year deal,[9] and MotoGP beginning in 2014, under a five-year deal.[10] In May 2013, BT announced that BT Sport would be offered for free to its internet subscribers via streaming.[11] Media analyst Steve Hewlett felt that BT's entry into the sport market was an effort to help strengthen its triple play business and, in particular, help retain internet subscribers lost to Sky (which he believed would result in greater financial loss than those that would be sustained by operating BT Sport).[12]
BT Sport launched on 1 August 2013.[13] On 12 August, BT reported that over 1,000,000 households had subscribed to the service ahead of the start of the 2013–14 Premier League, although admitting that the majority of them were BT internet subscribers.[14]
On 9 November 2013, BT Sport announced its acquisition of rights to the UEFA Champions League and Europa League beginning in 2015–16, under a three-year deal valued at £897 million, replacing Sky and ITV.[15] The interactive service BT Sport Extra launched in 2014.[16] In January 2015, BT Sport renewed its licensing agreement with ESPN International under a seven-year deal, allowing it to continue operating an ESPN-branded network as part of BT Sport, and hold rights to ESPN original programming, and event broadcast rights that are distributed internationally by ESPN.[17]
On 9 June 2015, BT announced it would launch a new channel, BT Sport Europe, which would carry all UEFA Champions League and Europa League matches. Concurrently it was announced that only the BT Sport 1 channel would be free to BT internet subscribers, and that BT Sport 2, BT Sport Europe and BT Sport ESPN would require viewers to subscribe for £5 extra. BT also announced a Freeview HD channel, BT Sport Showcase, which would carry 12 Champions League matches and 14 Europa League matches per season on a free-to-air basis, including at least one match per-round, each English team featured once, and the finals of both tournaments.[18] [19]
BT Sport also announced that it would launch BT Sport Ultra HD, the first 4K sports channel in the UK, on 2 August for the 2015 FA Community Shield. The channel would initially be exclusive to BT TV on BT Infinity, with a 4K service package and compatible YouView set-top box.[20] In 2016, BT Sport Europe was renamed BT Sport 3.
In 2017, BT Sport began an agreement with boxing promoter Frank Warren, under which Warren's channel BoxNation would be distributed as part of the BT Sport service, and that BT Sport and BoxNation would co-produce 20 cards per-year, which would air on Saturday nights and be simulcast by both networks.[21] [22] In April 2018, BT Sport announced a pay-per-view service, BT Sport Box Office, with an intent to broadcast premium boxing events.[23] On 2 August 2019, BT Sport relaunched its 4K channel as BT Sport Ultimate, and began to offer Dolby Atmos sound and high dynamic range (HDR) on supported devices.[24]
On 20 June 2019, BT Sport announced an agreement to carry the programming and pay-per-views of U.S. professional wrestling promotion WWE, ending a relationship with Sky Sports that dated back to the network's launch in 1989.
In April 2021, it was reported that BT was exploring a sale of all or part of BT Sport, in order to focus more on its fibreoptic services. Rumoured suitors included Amazon.com Inc. (which is one of the Premier League's current rightsholders), the sports streaming provider DAZN (which had notably beat out Sky Italia for exclusive domestic rights to Serie A football), and ESPN owner Disney.[25] [26] [27] By September 2021, DAZN was reported to be in "advanced talks" with BT.[28] [29] However, in December, it was reported that negotiations had stalled, and that Discovery Inc.—who owns competitor Eurosport and was preparing to merge with WarnerMedia to form Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)—was negotiating a joint venture with BT to combine their respective networks.[30] [31] In February 2022, the two companies entered exclusive negotiations.[32]
On 11 May 2022 Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA announced that it had reached an agreement to combine its Eurosport UK business with BT Sport in a 50/50 joint venture, in a transaction scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022 pending approval from regulators and sports bodies. Under the agreement, WBD will assume the operations of BT Sport, and merge them with Eurosport under a new brand at a later date. WBD will pay £93 million to BT over three years; if performance targets are met, WBD will pay a bonus of up to £540 million. The company will also have the option to buy out more of BT's stake in the venture. As part of the agreement, BT agreed to distribute Warner Bros. Discovery's factual streaming service Discovery+—which is the streaming platform of Eurosport—at no charge to most BT TV subscribers, and those who subscribe to BT Sport via the company directly.[33] [34]
The venture was approved by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on 22 July 2022,[35] [36] and the merger was completed on 1 September.[37] On 1 August 2022, BT Sport ESPN was rebranded as BT Sport 4, while the BT Sport Extra overflow channels were rebranded as BT Sport 5 through 10.[38]
On 21 February 2023, it was announced that BT Sport would rebrand as TNT Sports on 18 July 2023, ahead of the 2023–24 football season; the branding is derived from WBD's U.S. general entertainment channel TNT (which has historically carried sports coverage, such as the NBA; the brand had also previously operated in the UK),[39] and has also been used by WarnerMedia sports networks in Latin and South America. The Eurosport UK channels will be folded into TNT Sports at a later date, expected to be no sooner than the 2024 Summer Olympics, but no later than the 2026 Winter Olympics.[40] [41] [42] The network's new brand identity was developed by DixonBaxi, using a "viewfinder" formed from rotated "T" letters as a visual motif, and using the "N" from the logo as a homophone of "and" to join pairs of concepts (such as fixtures).[43]
In the UK, TNT Sports is available in standard definition with all BT TV packages for BT Broadband customers. The 4K channel TNT Sports Ultimate is also available to BT Superfast Fibre customers for an additional fee. TNT Sports operates six part-time overflow channels, originally branded as BT Sport Extra, but branded since July 2023 as TNT Sports 5–10. They are carried via the red button on Sky, and displayed as individual channels on the BT and Virgin Media EPGs.TNT Sports is also available to EE mobile phone contract customers to view via TNT Sports & Discovery+ apps or to stream via Discovery Plus' website. This can be streamed on a laptop or PC which is a stark contrast to how BT Sports used to work.
On Sky, TNT Sports 1 only is currently offered for free to broadband subscribers as 'TNT Sports Lite', regardless of what subscription they have. Plusnet TV also offered the same until 1 November 2021 when their TV brand was discontinued,[44] however, TNT Sports is still available to Plusnet customers via the app service.[45] Customers who wish to view the remaining channels can subscribe to the 'TNT Sports Pack' in either standard or high definition.[46] BT also provide broadband subscribers access to the channels via the Discovery+ app.[47]
Virgin Media customers receive TNT Sports 1, 2, 3, 4, and Ultimate as part of their "Full House" bundle however, they do not receive AMC from BT.
TalkTalk TV customers subscribed to the TNT Sports Pack in order to receive the entire range of channels.
In addition, Freeview HD customers received BT Sport Showcase and Virgin Media customers received BT Sport Free. They closed on 30 June 2018.
On 4 December 2018, the SD versions of BT Sport and BT Sport ESPN stopped broadcasting on Virgin Media.
On 6 February 2019, BT Sport released the app for Xbox One.[48] [49] It was later released for PlayStation 4 on 31 May 2019.[50] On 8 September 2020, BT Sport also launched on Fire TV, Android TV and Roku TV.[51] On 18th July 2023, following the rebrand to TNT Sports, the channels became available on the Discovery+ service for viewers in the UK, with the BT Sport application discontinued on all platforms from October 12th 2023.
Plans for the channels launch came about when it was announced in June 2012 that the broadcast rights to the Premier League from the 2013–14 to 2015–16 seasons were awarded to BT and Sky, outbidding existing broadcaster ESPN for the rights.[52] BT showed 38 live matches from the Premier League each season, including 18 first pick matches, from the 2013/14 season til the end of the 2015/16 season.
In October 2012, BT announced it had also agreed deals to air Serie A, Ligue 1, Brasileirão and Major League Soccer, all of which were previously broadcast on ESPN,[53] as well as Premiership Rugby.[54]
In January 2013, BT announced it would also broadcast Women's Tennis Association matches from 21 tournaments.[55]
On 25 February 2013, BT announced that it had acquired ESPN's UK channels and their sports broadcasting rights, including rights to the FA Cup, UEFA Europa League, Scottish Premier League, Bundesliga and NASCAR.[56] This led to the shutting down of ESPN Classic and ESPN America in favour of the BT Sport channels.
On 7 May 2013, BT Sport acquired the rights to air Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events and taped programming in the UK and Ireland for three years, from 1 August.[57] Two days later it was announced that BT Sport had acquired an exclusive five-year deal to broadcast MotoGP races from the 2014 season, including free practices and qualifying as well as full coverage of Moto2 and Moto3.[58] BT Sport also broadcasts the FA WSL, A-League and programming from Red Bull Media House.[59] [60]
On 9 May 2013, BT announced that it had acquired the exclusive UK TV rights to MotoGP along with the Moto2 and Moto3 championships. Later in May, BT Sport acquired rights to the Football Conference for two years with 25-30 live games a season, including the end-of-season play-offs.
In January 2014, it was reported that BT Sport had acquired the rights to broadcast the World Rally Championship for the 2014 season.[61] [62]
BT Sport has carried the Premier League since its launch; as of the 2020–21 season, BT Sport holds rights to around 52 live matches per-season, including 32 Saturday matches with 12:30 p.m. kickoffs, and 20 midweek fixtures scheduled around the winter break in January and February.[63] [64] [65]
On 9 November 2013, BT announced a £897 million deal with UEFA to broadcast the Champions League and Europa League exclusively on BT Sport from the 2015–16 season for three years. The deal ended two decades of the competition being broadcast free-to-air on ITV, although BT stated that the finals of both competitions and at least one match per season involving each participating British team would still be broadcast free-to-air (doing so via the BT Sport Showcase channel).[66]
For the 2016–17 season, BT Sport premiered the studio programme BT Sport Score, which airs on Saturday matchdays and competes primarily with Sky's Soccer Saturday.[67]
BT Sport has held rights to the National League since 2013, which were most recently renewed in 2020; BT Sport carries a weekly match on Saturdays, and the weekly National League highlights show.[68] It has also carried the FA Trophy and FA Vase matches.[69]
It has also carried France's Ligue 1 since 2013,[70] and Italy's Serie A (which most recently returned to the network in 2021).[71]
On 15 February 2024, it was announced that TNT Sports had agreed a four-year deal with the Football Association to show the FA Cup from the 2025-26 season.[72]
BT became a senior broadcast partner of Premiership Rugby in 2013–14. The original Premiership coverage deal ran until the 2016–17 season and allowed BT Sport to exclusively broadcast up to 69 live games per season. The Aviva Premiership's viewing figures rose by 40% in TV audiences in its first season with BT Sport.[73] A third deal was signed in December 2020 to cover Premiership Rugby and the Premiership Rugby Cup until 2024.[74] The deal covers up to 80 matches a season from 2016–17 and introduced an extended highlights programme from the 2015–16 season.[75] Subsequently, in 2017 Channel 5 announced a deal that would see them simulcast five matches per season until the end of the 2020–21 season.[76] ITV subsequently took over the simulcasting rights, broadcasting up to 6 league season matches and the final between the 2021–22 and 2023–24 seasons.
The deal with BT Sport also sees them exclusively broadcast the league's associated sevens series and the Premiership Rugby Cup. BT Sport also had exclusive live rights to the Anglo-Welsh Cup from 2016–17 until its final competition in 2017–18.
BT originally shared rights to European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR)'s champions and challenge cups with Sky Sports. The shared nature of the deal meant each broadcaster would exclusively broadcast up to 30 pool matches, 2 quarter-finals and 1 semi-final from each competition with the finals being shown by both. BT also received first pick on Champions Cup matches involving Premiership Rugby clubs.
For seven seasons from the 2018–19 season, BT Sport became the official broadcast partner of the Champions and Challenge cups and broadcast up to 134 matches per season.[77] The Challenge Cup will be shown exclusively on BT Sport whilst broadcasting of the Champions Cup was shared with Channel 4 in the UK and Virgin Media Sport in the Republic of Ireland until 2022 and with ITV and RTÉ from 2022 to 2024. Both channels simulcast one match from each round and the final.
BT Sport originally only had rights to show both the semi-finals and the final of Premiership Women's Rugby in the 2022–23 season. Ahead of the 2023–24 season, TNT gained broadcasting rights to one game per weekend as well as both the semi-finals and the final.[78] [79] [80] As part of the deal, there is provision for a free-to-air provider to show both the semi-finals and final alongside TNT.[80]
In August 2015, BT Sport acquired rights to Cricket Australia under a five-year deal starting in the 2016–17 season; the package included rights to internationals hosted by Australia (including English tours of Australia such as the 2017–18 Ashes series), as well as rights to the domestic Big Bash League.[81] BT Sport renewed its rights in the 2021–22 season, holding rights to Australian internationals through the 2025 season (including the 2021–22 Ashes series); the rights to the BBL and Women's Big Bash League were sold separately to Sky Sports.[82] [83] In February 2021, BT also reached deals for New Zealand and West Indies home matches.[84]
In January 2024, TNT announced its first major cricket rights acquisition when it obtained the rights to the India national cricket team from 2024 to 2028. The deal is signed just a few days prior to the start of the India v England test series.[85]
BT Sport's flagship motorsports event is MotoGP. In addition it shows the Moto2, Moto3, Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup and JuniorGP. Suzi Perry hosts the coverage alongside pundits Colin Edwards, Sylvain Guintoli, Michael Laverty and Neil Hodgson. Commentary is provided by Gavin Emmett and Hodgson, with Charlie Hiscott joined for Friday sessions coverage. Natalie Quirk appears as reporter. Emmett also presents Chequered Flag which is aired after the MotoGP race has finished.
The channel also has live broadcasts of the World Rally Championship (since 2014) and Formula E (since 2024).[86] [87] Previous coverage included the FIA World Endurance Championship, FIA European Formula Three Championship, British Formula Three Championship, World Series by Renault, BRDC Formula 4 Championship, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, International GT Open and Supercars Championship.
BT Sport showed extensive coverage of American sports, including Major League Baseball (MLB), College sport, Major League Lacrosse and the X Games. This was supplemented by BT Sport's a long-term agreement with ESPN to carry its original programming (including original documentaries and studio programmes), and events whose international rights are owned by ESPN International.[88] However, when TNT Sports replaced BT Sport in 2023,[89] it continued its coverage of baseball, but dropped its coverage of college sport.[90]
BT Sport had inherited the rights to the NBA from ESPN UK.[91] In the 2017–18 NBA season, BT Sport lost the rights to Sky.[92] TNT Sports regained the rights ahead of the 2023–24 NBA season, with plans to broadcast at least nine games per-week throughout the regular season.[93] [94]
TNT Sports holds the UK rights to UFC programming, most recently renewed in 2018,[95] including live events and other non-live programming. It also broadcast Cage Warriors events on occasions.[96]
Since UFC 239, selected UFC pay-per-view events have now been carried exclusively on BT Sport Box Office, and are no longer included at no additional charge—a move which faced criticism from domestic fans.[97] [98]
BT Sports first ever live event was August 3, 2013 of which was UFC 163 headlined by José Aldo and The Korean Zombie.[99]
BT Sport have been praised by the UFC and fans alike for their coverage and work on their promo's.[100] [101] It also created its own original programming to go alongside this such as Dan Hardy's Breakdown Show,[102] preview and post fight shows[103] and even hosting their own awards show with Nick Peet, Adam Catterall and UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping.[104]
BT Sport will often air UFC produced shows during their programming such as UFC Now,[105] Connected,[106] Main Event,[107] Greatest Fights,[108] Countdown[109] and more.
BT Sport is looking to renew the UFC rights until 2025.[110] [111]
Since 2017, BT Sport has an association with BoxNation to show certain live fights from Frank Warren Promotions. On 15 September 2018 BT Sport showed its first boxing pay-per-view boxing event – the rematch between Gennady Golovkin and Saul Alvarez[112] and on 1 December 2018 BT showed the Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury fight. Both were shown on BT's pay-per-view channel BT Sport Box Office. Paul Dempsey leads the coverage alongside Richie Woodhall, Steve Bunce and other guests. John Rawling and Barry Jones provide commentary with Caroline Pearce or Ronald McIntosh the ringside reporters.
On June 20, 2019, U.S. professional wrestling promotion WWE announced that its programming would move to BT Sport in the beginning of 2020 (with pay-per-view programs sold via BT Sport Box Office), ending a relationship with Sky Sports that dated back to the network's launch in 1989.[113] As well as live shows, BT Sport also shows repeated highlights of Raw, SmackDown, NXT, NXT UK and pay-per-views. In addition, it shows certain WWE Network programs, such as WWE Ruthless Aggression and WWE 24, as well as special editions of No Filter WWE.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, WWE were unable to film their NXT UK shows under typical circumstances. To resolve this, BT let WWE utilise a set at the BT London Studios. NXT UK recommenced tapings on September 17, 2020.
The deal between WWE and TNT Sports will expire in January 2025, where all WWE content in the UK will be broadcast through Netflix as part of a new arrangement.[114]
In February, the World Poker Tour (WPT) announced a new deal with BT Sports to broadcast the World Poker Tour in the UK and Ireland across BT Sports networks. The company will broadcast season XV of the WPT, which took place from 2016–2017. Highlights from the season include the first WPT victory of poker commentator Mike Sexton and the first victory by a woman in an open WPT event.[115]
In the first and second rounds, Matt Smith, Reshmin Chowdhury, Lynsey Hipgrave or Darrell Currie hosted the coverage. Lead commentary on these games was provided by Adam Summerton, Ian Darke and Paul Dempsey, alongside co-commentators, Adam Virgo and Kevin Davies. Reporters on these games included, Andy May, Natalie Quirk, Jeff Brazier and Becky Ives.
From the third round onwards, Jake Humphrey, Lynsey Hipgrave, Darrell Currie or Matt Smith hosted, alongside pundits taken from the Premier League coverage. Lead commentators included, Darke, Dempsey and Summerton as well as, Darren Fletcher and Peter Drury, and co-commentators included, Steve McManaman, Robbie Savage, Glenn Hoddle, Martin Keown and Jermaine Jenas. Reporters included, Des Kelly, Reshmin Chowdhury and Andy May.
The 2021 FA Cup Final was the last FA Cup game covered on BT Sport, with ITV regaining the rights from the 2021–22 season onwards.
In January 2013, BT Sport signed a deal with the WTA to show 21 live tournaments from the women's tennis tour. The coverage consisted of up to 800 live hours of coverage every year until 2016, each season ending with the WTA Finals.
From January 2017, BT Sport had the rights to show 52 WTA tournaments every year until 2019. Coverage on most competitions took feeds from the WTA international TV feed, but with larger events from the Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 category matches, Sam Smith or occasionally Annabel Croft presented coverage alongside Martina Navratilova. Lead commentary was provided by Chris Bradnam, David Law and David Mercer alongside co-commentators, Annabel Croft, Nigel Sears, Anne Keothavong and Jo Durie.
The last competition on BT Sport was the 2019 WTA Finals in which Clare Balding presented coverage alongside Anne Keothavong and Jo Durie. With Annabel Croft and Nigel Sears reporting from Shenzhen. Lead commentary came from David Law and David Mercer alongside Keothavong andDurie.
For the 2020 WTA Tour onwards, Amazon Prime Video are now the exclusive UK broadcaster, showing 49 tournaments a year.[124]
BT Sport produced a series of feature-length sports documentary films under the title BT Sport Films. Among the films shown on the channel are The Beautiful Game, I Believe in Miracles and Don't Take Me Home. Documentaries that have been critically well-received include Rocky & Wrighty: From Brockley To The Big Time, about childhood friends David Rocastle and Ian Wright,[129] Shoulder To Shoulder, on the Ireland national rugby union team during The Troubles,[130] and Brothers in Football, which tells the story of Corinthian Football Club.[131]
TNT Sports is continuing to show new documentaries as well as showing repeats of BT Sport Films.
BT Sport's weekday daytime schedules often included sporting action from yesteryear. Football features heavily and includes league matches from the 1970s and 1980s from both the ITV Sport, including full editions of The Big Match, and the BBC's Match of the Day archives. Also featured are FA Cup matches from the 1970s to the present day and UEFA Champions League matches. Other archive sporting action included boxing matches from the ESPN and ITV Sport archives as well as MotoGP races and Australian cricket.
TNT continues to show classic sport, but without the ESPN content.[132]