US media group Discovery is in talks with BT Sport about a partnership, a move that would threaten the sale of BT Sport to global sports streaming platform Dazn, reports the Financial Times.
According to unnamed sources familiar with the ongoing talks, Discovery has offered to create a JV with BT to create a new UK sports broadcasting player. BT executives are understood to have started giving more serious consideration to a partnership with Discovery over the last two months, as talks about the outright sale of BT Sport to Dazn stall over commercial details.
Dazn is understood to have asked for assurances over revenues if they acquired BT Sport, which is tied to BT's broadband customers; and BT wants to make sure that its customers will continue having access to Dazn services. One source said that BT planned to make a decision by end-2021 on whether to partner with Discovery or sell BT Sport to Dazn. BT and Discovery both declined to comment. The talks between them were first reported by the Sunday Telegraph.
