Andrew Georgiou on the BT Sport and Warner Bros. Discovery joint venture

Discovery Sports held a press conference at lunchtime today (12 May) to explain more about its forthcoming joint venture with BT Sport. The event involved Discovery Sports president Andrew Georgiou; BT Sport COO Jamie Hindhaugh; and Discovery SVP, Content and Production, Scott Young.

“Consumers will get a better value proposition. We’re adding rights, capability, and the strength of two global companies.”

Georgiou summarised the joint venture, saying: “We’re putting BT Sport and Eurosport into a joint venture where all rights and revenues will sit. Warner Bros. Discovery will take on operating control of the venture and there will be one single team operating all platforms across the Eurosport and BT Sport business. Consumers will get a better value proposition. We’re adding rights, capability, and the strength of two global companies, so that is of increased value.”

A single brand and business

The joint venture needs regulatory approval, and, once this is granted, Eurosport UK and BT Sport will remain as they are for a period of time. Beyond that, Georgiou says the plan is to bring the sports content from both businesses into a single brand and business.

There’s no fixed timeline around when the new brand will be rolled out and in short term, the sports rights will remain where they are. “We will give BT Sport subscribers access to Discovery+ and Eurosport, giving them access to the content where it sits,” says Georgiou. “But we want to bring that content into a single digital destination – all of our entertainment content and sports content. That’s the ultimate vision.”

“We’re not speculating on the sports rights we’re going to start bidding on or acquire. Football is very important, of course.”

Sports rights deals

In terms of the future rights strategy for the joint venture, Georgiou confirmed football will remain an important focus going forward. He added: “We’re not speculating on the sports rights we’re going to start bidding on or acquire. We know fans want a portfolio of content. Football is very important, of course, but we need to engage consumers with a portfolio of content they can engage with.”

As well as the combined sports offering from BT Sport and Eurosport UK, the new digital platform will also bring together Discovery’s entertainment portfolio – Discovery+ and HBO – into a single product, which will sit alongside BT Sport and Eurosport. “That’s a really compelling proposition – this is one platform to satisfy lots of different interests,” says Georgiou.

Facilities

Operationally, Georgiou confirmed all BT Sport and Eurosport UK’s teams will join together. He added that the decision on the future of the various BT Sport and Discovery studios and facilities hasn’t been made, saying, “We’re planning for all options.”

Young added: “The sports industry is quite small and loads of people who already know each other are now really looking forward to working with each other again. We’re working on how we start to bring all the production side together. We have The Cube and already utilise remote facilities to deliver content in a smarter way for audiences, and there are lots of opportunities moving forward.”

Ownership

Asked about Discovery’s option to buy out BT plc’s share in the joint venture in the next four years, Georgiou said: “Part of the JV is to create value for both shareholders, and we’ll see what that looks like when we need to. There’s nothing we can say now about how that will play out. One of the assets Warner Bros. Discovery brings is we’re a content business. That’s a huge win for BT Sport as BT was many things with different focuses on telephony, etc.”

Hindhaugh added: “You know how proud I am of BT Sport – we need to keep building and looking for new opportunities. The joint venture is a marriage made in heaven. I see this as BT looking to see how it can utilise and grow its relationship with customers to deliver value for money and looking at who is the best partner to take this forward. It’s exactly the right thing to be doing. We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing. It’s business as usual.”