Discovery closes in BT Sport after DAZN withdraws from deal

Discovery is in talks with BT Sport to create a new sports joint venture in the UK and Ireland. The idea is that the project will be confirmed in the coming weeks and will start work later this year, lacking “final agreement and regulatory approval”.

Discussions between Discovery, which owns Eurosport, and BT Sport have continued in recent weeks after DAZN withdrew from the deal over commercial issues, including a hitch involving Sky, which has sublicensing agreements with BT Sport.

The relationship between DAZN and Sky is not the best. In March 2021, Sky lost the Serie A rights competition to DAZN, which offered US$2.96 billion to broadcast the tournament. Subsequently, DAZN rejected Sky’s proposal to share these rights for US$1.8 billion (R$9.94 billion).

Negotiations with DAZN began in September of last yearHowever, there was a fear on the part of BT Sport that the streaming platform did not have the resources to finalize the purchase. though, In January of this year, DAZN submitted a concrete offer of $800 million (R$4.4 billion at the time)but it ended up not moving forward.

“Over the past year, we at DAZN have achieved excellent momentum in our business, including recently winning 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 UK. 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,” said Kevin Mayer, President of DAZN.

It is worth noting that the competitors in the “struggle” for the joint venture with BT Sport, Discovery and DAZN are also partners. In September 2020, the two companies extended the partnership for another three years. for Eurosport channels 1 and 2, which were already available to DAZN subscribers in Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain, with Switzerland added to the works.

If confirmed, BT Sport’s merger with Eurosport in the UK and Ireland will bring together an extensive list of broadcast rights, including the Olympic Games, Champions League, European League, Premier League, cycling majors, tennis majors and major rugby tournaments, among others.

“We are excited about this opportunity with BT Group to offer consumers a stronger and more streamlined combined sports offering in the UK and Ireland, and to broadly advance 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.

“With a shared ambition to grow, as well as combine our world-class sports assets with Discovery’s premium sports and entertainment content, our customers will benefit from more content in more places,” added Mark Allera, CEO of BT Sport.