As of February 28, the full range of Eurosport channels will be discontinued in the UK, with its content merging into the TNT Sports pay-TV broadcaster, through a strategic move made by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) – which owns both properties.
This means that the total line-up of live sport as well as non-live content currently available on Eurosport in the UK – such as top-tier grand slam tennis, and grand tour cycling – will instead be viewable on the various TNT Sports platforms, as well as through WBD’s Discovery+ UK streaming platform.
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This, in effect, puts WBD’s range of sporting content – live action as well as shoulder programming and documentaries – under one roof in the UK. Currently, TNT Sports is available through Discovery+ for £30.99 ($38.60) monthly, although cheaper options are possible when purchasing it through different providers.
It also marks the exit of Eurosport as a platform from UK TV screens, having been a home of top-tier sport since 1989. The Eurosport 1 and 2 linear channels will simply no longer transmit in the UK. It is presently available through various TV providers and networks.
Discovery initially bought Eurosport in 2015, before merging with Warner Media in 2022. Current rights include the French Open tennis grand slam.
In the other 50-plus countries across the continent in which it operates, meanwhile, the Eurosport brand and channels will remain unaltered. Therefore, live sport produced and distributed across Eurosport in Europe and TNT in the UK will be graphically different across those markets.
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By GlobalDataIn addition, WBD will make more sporting content available in the UK on its free-to-air channel Quest. This will include live content and additional programming.
Speaking to Sportcal (GlobalData Sport) at a media roundtable last week at which the move was announced, WBD Sports Europe’s group senior vice president of content, production, and business operations, Scott Young, commented on the Eurosport addition.
Young said: “When we began this journey [with WBD in the UK], we always knew that sports fans would need a single destination as a sports home. The sports customer was always going to want us to simplify our sports content offering in the UK eventually.
“The content will move across to become part of a much larger sports ecosystem and offering for our fans on TNT Sports.
“We don't have a Eurosport team and a TNT team – we have one combined operation at WBD Sports across the UK.”
He added: “There was always a plan to bring all of this together at a point in time. Our rights partners are aware of our strategy [in terms of moving content from a FTA home to behind a paywall], and they’ve been aware of our strategy for a while.
“The intersection of our content has always been Discovery+, we knew at a point in time that we would bring all this together.
“Sports fans on TNT are about to be exposed to content such as the Olympic Games from 2026 (winter games), which needs no introduction, as well as [a range of] big tentpole events from tennis and cycling. The home of cycling in the UK will be TNT Sports from now on.”
In terms of distribution, wholesale agreements have been closed with telecommunications heavyweights such as EE, Sky, and Virgin Media. These partners, Young said, “have been aware of the business strategy since the outset."
On the logistical planning around accommodating another set of rights onto the overall TNT Sports and Discovery+ platforms, Young explained that “we’ve been carefully mapping this scenario for over a year, and looking at how the scheduled rights all line up. We haven’t found a situation yet where we have to prioritize one sport over another.”
“We don't have any limitations with what we do across our streaming platforms, and those also have some additional elements that add to the viewing experience.”
"The content from both platforms is very complementary, and the different rights sit alongside each other very well.
“We’re very confident in our ability to amplify sports that are currently on Eurosport to a new audience that's watching our premium sports offerings on TNT.
“We genuinely believe this move will be beneficial for all our sports portfolio.”
Young pointed out that “we don’t produce a program thinking ‘TNT or Eurosport’, we produce programming for WBD Sport and all our customers across Europe, they just land differently as far as branding in certain markets is concerned.”
He also explained that when the new WBD streaming site, Max, launches in the UK in early 2026, “this will not be a rebrand of Discovery+, it will be a new platform which will house premium entertainment and sports content.
“When Max launches, sport will not be available on Discovery+, it will move to Max.”
In terms of the content set to be made available on Quest, meanwhile, Young commented: “This isn’t a new addition, we used to have soccer highlights available there.
“What is new, for example, if I pick MotoGP just as a particular sport, is that the sprint races from every MotoGP event will be live on Quest. Nearly all of those will be live.”
“Quest will continue to be very much part of our offering.
“We ideally want to use platforms like Quest to touch new fans and bring them into the sport, rather than having it be the only place where you can watch that sport. But we're always reviewing the best ways of servicing all the channels we have.”
Turning to the timing behind this move, Young said: “We never set a hard date by which time this must happen, the important thing for us was to take these steps in the right order – launching TNT Sports, then getting through a full soccer and rugby season.
“TNT Sports isn't even two years old yet – the amount of work that’s already happened to land it successfully in this market and connect with fans… was the most important part of phase one. The date was not really specific, nor something we were attached to.”
On the subject of potential upcoming sports rights additions, meanwhile – in comments that were made before recent reports around TNT looking to snap up rights to rugby union's Six Nations – Young said: “We always take a look at them as they come available, rights are measured in how they fit into the ecosystem we currently have, and how they are additive and complementary to what we already have, and how do we continue to drive a sustainable business that doesn’t just acquire rights for the sake of it.
“We’re always open to business, but we don’t feel the need for every set of rights available.”
