Why BT Sport rebranded to TNT Sports
By Euan Burns
Football coverage in the United Kingdom and Ireland is going to look quite different when the 2023/24 season gets underway in August.
New logos and graphics are in the works as BT Sport undergoes a rebrand, with the new name TNT Sports coming as the result of a recent merger.
Here's what you need to know about the rebrand and how it could affect the coverage of football on your TV.
Why is the rebrand happening?
BT Sport has been bought out by Warner Bros Discovery. They are also the current owners of Eurosport.
Their general plan is to eventually merge BT Sport and Eurosport into one brand called TNT Sports that will show an array of sports like football, rugby, the Olympics and more. Eurosport is where you can find many more niche sports, such as motorsport away from Formula One, tennis and hockey.
The deal was worth up to £650m. Andrew Georgiou, president and managing director of Warner Bros Discovery Sports Europe, said at the time: "Today marks the start of our journey to build a new sports destination for fans in the U.K and Ireland. Combining BT Sport and Eurosport U.K. together with Warner Bros Discovery's world-class and growing entertainment offering will result in an exciting new proposition for consumers."
Will TNT Sports show the Premier League and the Champions League?
This is the only real detail football fans need to focus on. Nothing BT Sport currently offer in their packages is going to go away. They will still have rights to the Premier League and the Champions League, Europa League and the Europa Conference League for as long as those contracts are valid.
The full list of sports currently on BT Sport and will stay with TNT Sports is as follows:
- Premier League
- Champions League
- Rugby Union
- UFC
- WWE
- Cricket
- Boxing
- Motorsport
- MotoGP
- Baseball
- eSports
- AFL (Aussie Rules)
- Badminton
- Extreme Sports
- Fishing
- Hockey
- Sailing
- Squash
Another important detail is that there has been no announcement as of yet to suggest the price of subscriptions will increase.
When does BT Sport become TNT Sports?
As you may already have had forced into your head during the coverage of the latter stage of the season, July 18 is the official date when it will say TNT Sports on your TV guide rather than BT Sport.
This means it will all be in place well before the first game of the new Premier League season kicks off. That being said, get ready for at least one presenter to accidentally use the words 'BT Sport' instead of 'TNT Sports' while introducing other content on the network.