Competition Authority Clears BT Sport TV and Eurosport UK Joint Venture

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today cleared BT Group’s agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, which is intended to result in a 50:50 Joint Venture (JV) company between BT Sport and Eurosport UK that will create a new TV sports offering for the UK and Ireland.

At present BT is busy focusing their efforts toward supporting Openreach’s £15bn deployment of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband technology to 25 million UK premises by December 2026 and, on top of that, they also have the ongoing rollout of ultrafast 5G mobile infrastructure to consider. The new JV, which will share some of BT’s burden in running a TV sport business, is one way to help support that.

As a result of the CMA’s ruling, BT and Warner Bros. Discovery now expect to complete the creation of their new offering within the “coming weeks“. Both BT Sport and Eurosport UK will initially retain their separate brands and product propositions in the market, but at some point in the future they will be “brought together under a single brand“.

Marc Allera, Future Chairman of the JV and CEO BT Consumer, said:

“It’s great news that the CMA has approved the new JV that we are forming with Warner Bros. Discovery, combining the very best of BT Sport and Eurosport UK, to create an exciting new offer for live sport programming in the UK. Today is a huge milestone, as we now look toward day one of the new business, which we hope to be in the coming weeks.”

Andrew Georgiou, Future Board Member of the JV and President of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, said:

“Combining the capabilities, portfolios and scale of BT Sport and Eurosport UK will be a big win for fans in the UK & Ireland, offering a new destination that will feature all the sport they love in one place. We now look forward to closing the transaction and having the opportunity to further engage all stakeholders in the process of forming and developing the JV.”

The Board of Directors of the JV will be equally represented between appointees of BT and Warner Bros. Discovery. As above, the first Chairperson to be appointed, nominated by each shareholder on a rotating basis, will be Marc Allera, CEO BT’s Consumer division.

The new management and delivery of the JV will be led by Andrew Georgiou, President and Managing Director, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, who will also become a member of its board.