BBC’S Olympics role at risk after BT Sport sell-off
The BBC’S Olympics supremacy faces its most serious threat as BT Sport customers automatically get wall-to-wall coverage in the telecom firm’s £540million sell-off to Warner Bros Discovery.
A year after it was revealed BT was looking to offload its sports broadcasting arm, a deal has now been sealed for the British broadcaster to merge under one brand with Eurosport, which is a division of Warner Bros Discovery.
Marc Allera, chief executive of BT’S consumer division, played down fears of any imminent price rises for current customers as he faced questions for the first time during the deal’s launch.
One element of the deal that will most worry BBC chiefs is that BT
Sport will get immediate access to Discovery+, which is now the only broadcaster with rights to show every Olympic medal live.
The BBC had controversially lost automatic primary broadcast rights in 2015 after the International Olympic Committee allowed Discovery to table a £920million offer which blew rivals out of the water. Under Government “Crown Jewels” broadcasting arrangements, some Olympics coverage is guaranteed free-to-air. However the BBC was only able to secure two live events at a time under the terms of a sublicensing agreement.
In February, BT said it was in exclusive negotiations with Discovery after completing a review of its BT Sport operation. The new announcement suggests that, for the short term, BT’S Champions League and Premier League cover
age will retain the same logos, commentators and presenting teams.
JB Perrette, chief executive and president of streaming at Warner
Bros Discovery, announced the deal in the same week that Uefa agreed Champions League reforms which will lead to more games available to broadcasters.
Football will remain a key part of the BT offering, but Perrette played down the prospect of another surge in Premier League and Champions League rights prices.
BT said the two brands would initially stay separate but would ultimately be brought “together under a single brand”. The London-listed firm said it would immediately receive £93million from Warner Bros Discovery, and up to £540million if future conditions were met.
The Premier League has also been consulted over the sale since February. DAZN, the streaming challenger bankrolled by billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik, had initially been the front-runner to secure a but Discovery gatecrashed an agreement.
BT Sport’s deal with the league expires in 2025 so the 20 clubs would be entitled, in theory, to derail a takeover. However, approval is all but certain for the two potential suitors involved. BT will also need a green light from Uefa because it has rights for the Champions League and Europa League.
BT Sport paid £385million for the live rights to 52 Premier League matches a season from 2019 to 2022. The deal was rolled over for another three years as part of an agreement involving the Government to minimise the financial impact of Covid.
Confirmation of a deal came as BT told shareholders it met expectations with a two per cent increase in earnings to £7.6billion for the year to March, as cost savings offset lower revenues.