BT Sport to create joint venture with Eurosport owner Discovery

Telecoms giant BT has announced it is in exclusive discussions with Eurosport owner Discovery to create a joint venture that will save its BT Sport division.

The two sides are looking to create a 50/50 joint venture, with negotiations expected to conclude in the next few months.

BT announced a review of its sports division in April last year, having sunk billions into sporting rights including the Premier League and Champions League.

ITV and Amazon were said to have been interested, but the company announced it would look to link up with Discovery.

BT said: “The new combined business would remain committed to retaining BT Sport’s existing major sports broadcast rights while BT Sport customers would get access to Discovery’s sport and entertainment content, including the discovery+ app.”

The company added that it has also reached an agreement with Sky for a new longer-term reciprocal channel supply deal that will run until 2030.

The announcement came as the company revealed that revenues and profits dipped slightly in the nine months to the end of 2021.

Revenues hit £15.7 billion, down 2%, with pre-tax profits down 3% to £1.5 billion.

There were hits to BT’s global and enterprise divisions but its Openreach broadband services saw an increase in sales.

Bosses said supply chain issues and the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic were to blame, but added that the full-fibre broadband rollout continues at pace.

They said that, over the three months to the end of 2021, full-fibre services reached 6.5 million homes, including two million rural premises, with 50,000 households added every week.

The 5G rollout also increased and now covers more than 40% of the UK population, it added.

In its consumer division, which include its EE mobile service, sales were down slightly due to more customers switching to SIM-only deals and fewer people using landlines.

However, there was growth in BT Sport revenue compared with a year ago when sports fixtures were cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.

BT’s enterprise division, which sells services to businesses, fell, although the company did win a major contract to roll out new services on the London Underground.

Chief executive Philip Jansen said “BT has had a good quarter with encouraging market share performance, and we continued to make significant improvements in customer service, although revenue from our enterprise divisions was softer than we expected.”

He added: “The agreement in principle with Sky will provide our customers more choice and more flexibility for the next decade.

“Separately, we are excited at the prospect of a new joint venture between BT Sport and Eurosport UK as we enter into exclusive discussions with Discovery.”