BT enters exclusive talks with Discovery on BT Sports

BT has entered exclusive talks with the US pay-TV giant Discovery to create a joint venture business that will include BT Sport, which has rights to sports including the Premier League and Champions League.

The joint venture, which BT expects will be operational later this year subject to regulatory approval, ends almost a year of uncertainty over the future of the telecoms company’s decade-old pay-TV sport operation.

The decision to combine with Discovery, which in the past has considered bidding for the UK TV rights to the Premier League, is a blow to the sports streaming business Dazn.

Backed by the billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik, Dazn, dubbed the “Netflix of sports”, had pushed hard for a deal to buy BT Sport to fuel its plans to grow in the UK.

“The proposed joint venture with Discovery would create an exciting new sports broadcasting entity for the UK and would act as a perfect home for our BT Sport business,” said Marc Allera, chief executive of BT’s Consumer division. “With a shared ambition for growth, as well as the combination of our world class sports assets along with Discovery’s premium sports and entertainment content, our customers will benefit from even more content in more places.”

BT, which has had to seek clearance from the Premier League and Champions League to push through the change in ownership, has also extended a reciprocal channel supply deal with Sky that is crucial to its sports broadcasting business until 2030.

The telecoms company has spent billions on sports rights to drive the growth of BT Sport since it was launched a decade ago to stem the loss of millions of broadband customers enticed by its rival Sky’s offers bundling internet connectivity with sport and entertainment programming.