All you need to know about BT Sport rebrand launch date, prices, monthly pass and broadcast rights.
When the new 2023/24 Premier League season begins in August, football coverage in the United Kingdom will look very different.
As you may already have drilled into your head during the coverage of the latter stages of the 2022/23 season, UK sports broadcaster BT Sport is undergoing a rebrand this summer and will soon be officially known as TNT Sports, with Premier League football, Champions League football and Premiership Rugby set to air on the new channel next season.
The rebranding follows the merger of BT Sport by Warner Bros Discovery, which also owns Eurosport. The two channels will be brought together under the TNT Sports brand down the line, providing a rich roster of global sports action to stream for fans across the UK all under one banner.
For the time being, Eurosport will remain its own entity. The channel offers more niche sports like winter sports, and snooker, and is the primary rights holder for the Paris 2024 Olympics in the United Kingdom.
But what does this mean for subscribers, and how it could affect the coverage of football on your TV? As GOAL finds out…
When does TNT launch in the UK?
The TNT Sports name is familiar to Warner Bros. Discovery’s audiences in Latin America and the United States but is certainly a fresh face in the UK.
July 18 is the official date when the BT Sport name will disappear from TV guides, and it will rather say TNT Sports in the United Kingdom.
How much will TNT cost?
No changes in price have been announced yet for BT Sport subscribers, but they haven’t been ruled out either, so no one knows what pricing will look like. Currently, BT Sport costs £29.99 a month on a rolling 30-day contract (monthly-pass), and £18.00 a month on 24-month contract.
For television viewers, all that will happen is a change in name. BT Sport will simply become TNT Sports, with no new channel to tune in to.
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For those who regularly stream via the BT Sport app, TNT Sports live channels and full match replays will become a part of the Discovery+ streaming service on launch day (18 July). Discovery+ offers lifestyle, entertainment and reality shows, along with sports – Eurosport for now, and TNT Sports soon.
The service offers a mix of free and “premium” channels at different pricing – Entertainment (£3.99/month) and Entertainment + Sports (£6.99/month). A third separate tier – which will include TNT Sports – will be introduced soon.
This will eventually replace the current BT Sport Monthly Pass streaming offer, with Discovery+ becoming the go-to streaming app for TNT Sports, but the BT Sport app will continue to be accessible (with reduced functionality) for a few months to enable a smooth transition for customers before being shut down.
With the integration of TNT Sports, the overarching strategy is to make Discovery+ an even more significant player in the sports streaming sector, offering users an all-in-one platform for sports, entertainment, and more. In addition to the Discovery+ app, TNT Sports will reportedly launch a new app for all this content later in the year.
What are TNT’s broadcast rights in the UK?
TNT Sports will take over BT Sport’s existing portfolio of live streaming rights and will offer the same staple of sports content that BT currently does, including the Premier League and the Champions League, Europa League and the Europa Conference League until those broadcasting contracts are valid.
For instance, BT currently holds the broadcasting rights to two more seasons of Premier League matches, as well as the next four years of Champions League fixtures and Premiership Rugby, which will simply be transferred to TNT.
Here is the full list of sports you can currently find on BT Sport and will stay with TNT Sports:
