Paramount’s successful play for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) will make it the co-owner and day-to-day manager of the UK TNT Sports channels and bring the soon to launch HBO Max under its control.
TNT Sports UK
Created through a joint venture which brought together BT Sport and Eurosport, the channels are the nation’s second biggest subscription sports broadcaster with rights to show matches Premier League and European football, plus cricket, rugby, motorsport fixtures and more.
However TNT Sports suffered a blow last year after losing the bidding to keep the Champions League – one of its most important set of rights – plus the UEFA Europa and Conference leagues on the channel after 2027.
The Europa and Conference leagues were snapped up by Sky but the flagship Champions League rights, which had been held by BT Sport and TNT Sports for a decade, were won by Paramount which plans to show the matches on its own streaming service.
Paramount’s success in muscling in on Netflix’s planned takeover of WBD means the Champions League rights and channels will now be reunited under common ownership.
It’s not yet clear if the channels will continue to exist under Paramount’s ownership or whether their remaining sports will be moved to Paramount+.
Paramount could also seek to buy out BT’s share of the business – a potentially lucrative deal for the telecoms giant.
One sport that seems likely to move to Paramount+ once the WBD/Paramount deal completes is UFC which the streamer has been buying up the rights to as they become available in each market.
In the UK they’re currently held by TNT Sports under a multi-year deal last renewed in 2022 and Paramount’s close ties with the sport should guarantee that it gets to extend that tie-up.
HBO Max and discovery+
Warner Bros Discovery owns both the discovery+ and HBO Max streaming services, the second of which launches in the UK at the end of March.
That launch will still go ahead but it’s possible – perhaps even probable – that Paramount won’t want to run three separate paid streaming brands and will eventually combine their content – which will include such major brands as Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Superman, Batman, Mission Impossible, Friends, and The Big Bang Theory – into a single service to create a streamer that can more easily compete with Netflix and Disney+’s extensive libraries.
Linear Channels
Paramount, which already owns 5 (previously Channel 5) and its spin-offs, will also gain ownership of WBD’s portfolio of traditional linear channels including Quest, Quest Red, Food Network, DMAX, Really, TLC, and Discovery Channel.
It’s likely that a single UK leadership team assumes responsibility for entire line-up of channels, possibly with a long-term goal of either rationalising the number of them or reshaping their respective schedules and themes.
It’s also possible that the 5 catch-up app could become the new streaming home of the non-subscription channels and their content.