Following today’s news (17 May) that AT&T and Discovery are to merge, Conrad Wiacek, Head of Sport Analysis at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on the impact for sports media rights:

“With the news that AT&T and Discovery are to merge, the landscape for sports media rights and sports broadcasting in the largest media rights market on earth, the US, is changing significantly.

“With organisations such as Disney and Comcast consolidating their market position through mergers and acquisitions, as well as bidding astronomical amounts for sports content – Disney owned ESPN committing over $100bn for NFL rights for the next decade is indicative of this – the owner of the global rights for the Olympic Games is now consolidating its position thanks to this merger.

“With sports content at the forefront of the OTT revolution, Discovery and AT&T merging now will create a new ecosystem for sports, such as esports, to gain a foothold in the US.”