FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football – Premier League – Leicester City v West Bromwich Albion – King Power Stadium, Leicester, Britain – April 22, 2021 General view of the BT Sports team before the match Pool via REUTERS/Rui Vieira
February 3, 2022
By Paul Sandle
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s BT Group has entered exclusive discussions with Discovery to create a joint venture between BT Sport and Eurosport, saying the move would keep it in the “exciting” content business while sharing expensive rights costs.
Announcing the deal as it said COVID-19 and supply chain issues would hit revenue this year, BT opted to stay in sports television rather than going for an outright sale to streaming service DAZN, which had also made an offer.
BT said it would remain committed to retaining BT Sport’s existing major sports rights, including its crown jewel: Premier League soccer.
The 50:50 joint venture will also have rights to the Olympic Games, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, cycling Grand Tours, tennis Grand Slams, the winter sport World Cup season and Premiership Rugby, the companies said.
Discovery beat DAZN, which sources told Reuters was near to agreeing an outright deal last month.
BT Chief Executive Philip Jansen said there were two very good options, but Discovery won.
“From a corporate financial point of view, the profile much improves, because obviously there will be synergies, both in cost and revenue,” he told reporters.
“And it keeps us very much in the competitive framework for what is a very interesting, exciting content market.”
DAZN Chairman Kevin Mayer said the deal had “become uneconomical”, but he remained committed to growing his business in Britain.
Shares in BT were trading down 3% at 189 pence in early deals as it lowered its outlook for full-year revenue from broadly flat to down 2% due to the impact of COVID.
Revenue also fell 2% in the nine months to end-December to 15.68 billion pounds, with declines in global and enterprise partly offset by growth in the Openreach network.
Jansen said, however, that cost savings meant it was keeping its adjusted earnings target of 7.5 billion to 7.7 billion pounds this financial year and more than 7.9 billion pounds next year unchanged.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Kate Holton and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Source: One America News Network
