Following the news that BT has entered exclusive negotiations with Discovery to merge BT Sport and Eurosport UK in a 50:50 joint venture;

Natasha Rybak, Principal Analyst, Consumer Services, Platform and Devices at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view:

“In Discovery, BT has finally settled on its favored, surprise suitor for BT Sport after a lengthy period of uncertainty. The pairing will bring together considerable assets and expertise into a consolidated and prominent UK content player.

“Content, including the headline BT Sport portfolio, is key to BT’s consumer multiplay strategy. It will help to drive demand for higher-speed broadband, tiered multiservice packages, and associated value-added services (VAS) based on a premium TV and content platform.

“However, rights aren’t cheap or easy—especially when it comes to sports. Like many other telcos, BT has had to balance the spiraling costs of content acquisition and distribution agreements against concrete return-on-investment leverage, as well as the need for ongoing investment in other critical areas.

“With Discovery, BT gains a heavyweight content power player with extensive experience and expertise, and a well-established operational ecosystem. This promises positive potential ramifications for not just the development of BT Sport, an asset that may eventually be completely divested, but also the broader BT Group digital content capability and multiservice go-to-market propositioning.

“If it gets the regulatory seal of approval, the joint venture will be a win for BT. If not a UK market gamechanger, BT will certainly be a disruptive player substitution in terms of content market gameplay.”