With DAZN withdrawing for commercial reasons, including a hitch with Sky, Discovery is in negotiations with BT Sport to create a new car joint project in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Talks between Discovery, owner of Eurosport channel, with BT Sport have continued in recent weeks. Sky has sub-licensing agreements with BT Sport.
In terms of giving up broadcasting, it’s worth acquiring. In March 2021, Sky lost the competition for Italian rights to DAZN, which had offered $2.96 billion for the tournament. Then DAZN rejected Sky’s proposal to share the rights for $1.8 billion.
the Sports MKTE It has been following the case from the start and BT Sport was concerned that the streaming platform did not have the financial resources to complete the deal. DAZN even made a bid of US$800 million, but it didn’t go ahead.
“Over the past year, we at DAZN have achieved excellent momentum in our business, including recent victories in premium domestic football rights with LaLiga in Spain, Serie A in Italy and the Bundesliga in Germany. We remain fully committed to growing our business and investing in the Kingdom. United, however, the deal with BT Sport has become uneconomical for DAZN. We respect that BT has chosen a different strategic path and we wish all the best for BT, BT Sport and Discovery in the future,” commented Kevin Mayer, President of DAZN.
Should the deal go through, BT Sport’s merger with Eurosport in the UK and Ireland would include several broadcast rights, including the Olympics, Champions League, Europa League, Premier League, cycling grand tours, tennis and the Premier League. .
He added: “We are excited about this opportunity with BT Group to offer consumers stronger and more streamlined cross-sport offerings in the UK and Ireland, and to further develop our strategy to bring sports and entertainment to more consumers on the platform of their choice.” Jean Briac Peret, President and CEO of Discovery Streaming and International.
Mark Allera, CEO of BT concluded. sports.
