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 chief executive Philip Jansen said the deal will allow the company to remain committed to keeping its major sporting rights.

He added: “It made sense for all our stakeholders and our customers to go down the route with a joint venture with Discovery.

“There’ll be synergies, both in costs and revenue, and, from a customer point of view, it’s really important that customers will get more choice and more flexibility as a result of the move.”

The boss added that the company 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 were £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.

Mr Jansen said: “In December we had some real challenges because everybody was isolating and so many people were catching Covid.”

He added: “We hoped that the supply chain issues would resolve themselves more quickly than they have and, as many observers have commented, this is going on longer than people expected.

“It’s difficult to get hold of some kit from suppliers because they’re short from a chip supply point of view… it will be fine but it does cause a little bit of softness.”

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, BT added.

In its consumer division, which includes 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.