TNT Sports reveal new faces, new roles and returning fan favourites in the rebrand from BT Sport confirmed on Tuesday morning.
Among a number of departures is Peter Walton, who appeared on our screens for match coverage.
Walton had worked with the broadcaster to talk us through and explain key refereeing decisions.
But now the channel will now go without a refereeing expert just as Sky Sports introduce one in Mike Dean who quit his role as a VAR to take up the role at Sky ahead of this season.
Take your seat for TNT Sports🍿
— TNT Sports (@btsport) July 18, 2023
As expected, Laura Woods WILL be the head of the presenting team, while Lynsey Hipgrave remains in a presenting role on the channel.
Jules Breach is set to replace Des Kelly as the channel’s main touchline reporter.
Reshmin Chowdhury is to present Champions League action, while Jules Breach will present a show on Saturday leading up to the televised match before taking on the touchline reporting role.
Bringing Ally McCoist is a popular one, he will be co-commentator on Premier League and Champions League games while Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch and Joe Cole will head the TNT Sports pundits list.
The channel has also engaged a number of other BT Sports faces including the likes of Owen Hargreaves, Steve McMananan, Joleon Lescott, Michael Owen, Paul Scholes and Robbie Savage.
TNT SPORTS STATEMENT:
TNT Sports marks a new era in sports broadcasting in the UK and Republic of Ireland across television, streaming and digital platforms. New faces, new roles and returning fan favourites make up a new TNT Sports team of presenters, pundits and commentators. discovery+ becomes the streaming home of TNT Sports in the UK with an unrivalled combination of live sport rights – including Eurosport.
TNT Sports goes live today throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland, replacing BT Sport. Promising to become the ultimate home for sport fans, TNT Sports heralds the most significant change in the sports broadcast landscape in the last decade.Featuring a new and contemporary brand, an outstanding new line-up of talent, an enhanced value proposition for customers and flexible ways to purchase and watch, today marks the start of a new relationship with sports fans. In addition to the launch of a new brand, starting today discovery+ becomes the new streaming destination for TNT Sports in the UK. discovery+ will present many of the world’s most celebrated sports events together with great entertainment under a new Premium plan, priced at £29.99 per month, which is the same price as was previously charged for a BT Sport Monthly Pass*.
The service not only provides great value, but access to the action from TNT Sports’ and Eurosport’s extensive portfolios of live rights plus discovery+ entertainment content. TNT Sports is available across all major TV platforms including BT TV, Sky and Virgin Media. Existing BT Sport customers are able to watch and enjoy TNT Sports without needing to take any further action. TNT Sports will present the premium live sports rights TNT Sports will present the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Heineken Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, Cricket, UFC, Boxing and WWE.Taken together with Eurosport on discovery+, subscribers will get a front row seat to an unrivalled offer of premium rights including all this live sport plus Olympic Games Paris 2024, Grand Slam tennis tournaments (featuring the Australian Open and Roland-Garros) and cycling Grand Tours, including the Tour de France.
Andrew Georgiou, board member of the Joint Venture and President and Managing Director, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, said: “We are hugely excited to launch TNT Sports across the UK and Republic of Ireland. TNT Sports goes live with a new and contemporary brand, a fabulous new and exciting line-up of talent, great value for viewers as well as flexible ways to buy and watch. From today, fans can watch TNT Sports in the same places they enjoyed BT Sport and without any interruption to their access. In addition, with TNT Sports now on discovery+ in the UK we can begin to deliver a simple and even more compelling offer that appeals to the whole household, combining more live sport together with entertainment. We believe this is an exceptional value proposition for fans offering a compelling combination of sport and entertainment that is unique to discovery+.”
From next season, Laura Woods – a two-time winner of SJA British Sports Journalism Awards Sports Presenter of the Year, will host TNT Sports’ exclusive coverage of the UEFA Champions League, as well as major live boxing fight nights.
Reshmin Chowdhury will anchor the UEFA Champions League matches, building on her previous role presenting the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League. Reshmin also previously led Eurosport’s coverage of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 from its award-winning Cube studio.
Lynsey Hipgrave will continue to host live coverage of the Premier League in a role she began at the start of the 2022/23 season.
Jules Breach will take on a broader role presenting the UEFA Europa League, reporting on key matches across the Premier League and UEFA Champions League and will front a new-look show to start Saturday’s Premier League coverage on TNT Sports.
Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch and Joe Cole will share their insights and opinions with TNT Sports viewers as part of a stellar line-up of football experts that will include Rachel Brown-Finnis, Owen Hargreaves, Steve McManaman, Joleon Lescott, Michael Owen, Paul Scholes and Robbie Savage.
The commentary team and voices of TNT Sports will include Darren Fletcher, Adam Summerton and Lucy Ward while Ally McCoist joins as a co-commentator and pundit for Premier League and UEFA Champions League matches.
Orla Chennaoui will join TNT Sports’ rugby coverage and present a selection of live Gallagher Premiership matches in addition to her role as Eurosport’s lead cycling presenter. Craig Doyle will continue to host live match coverage and Ugo Monye will take on an extended role that will see him add presenting roles alongside punditry. The voices of rugby on TNT Sports will include commentators Alastair Eykyn and Nick Mullins.
New rugby pundits include Stuart Hogg, who has recently retired after a stellar career that included 100 international caps and a domestic and European double with the Exeter Chiefs in 2020, and Emily Scarratt, Women’s Rugby World Cup 2014 winner and top point-scorer and Team GB captain at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. They will join a host of familiar names including Martin Bayfield, Lawrence Dallaglio, Brian O’Driscoll, Sarra Elgan, Austin Healey, Ben Kay and Sam Warburton.
Suzi Perry will continue to lead coverage of MotoGP on TNT Sports, joined by 2003 Superbike World Champion, Neil Hodgson, set to deliver expert analysis throughout the season. Gavin Emmett, Michael Laverty, and Natalie Quirk complete the presentation line-up.
Carl Frampton will be a lead boxing analyst on TNT Sports alongside new host Laura Woods.Radzi Chinyanganya, who presented analysis from Eurosport’s Cube studio for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and is currently lead presenter for Eurosport’s Triple Crown snooker coverage, will work across a variety of TNT Sports programming.While those named above do not constitute an exhaustive list of the TNT Sports team, they represent the refreshed line-up that will feature across its sports portfolio. Further content and programming information will be released ahead of the new football and rugby seasons.
TNT Sports on discovery+ brings with it a sports-first experience packed with features, including on compatible devices the popular interactive timeline that puts fans in charge and enables them to easily replay live video or skip through key points in the action to relive the best moments. With the Premium plan on discovery+ in the UK, sport fans will also have access to something for the whole household with a huge variety of exclusive, original entertainment series across Reality, True Crime, Paranormal, Documentaries, Food and more.Today also sees the launch of TNTSports.co.uk, offering fans the latest news, views, live updates and expert analysis as well as free-to-view video clips from the sports that TNT Sports presents live.
Access to TNT Sports for existing BT Sport customers via BT TV, Sky, and Virgin Media will automatically commence from today. Customers who have access to the BT Sport App can continue enjoying TNT Sports via that app until it shuts down later this year. Eligible customers will also be directed to a simple discovery+ authentication process and can then download the discovery+ app which will give them access to TNT Sports, Eurosport and original entertainment.
TNT Sports is available across all major TV platforms offering a line-up of up to four TV channels (TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 2, TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 4), up to six digital or red-button channels (TNT Sports 5 to 10), TNT Sports Ultimate and TNT Sports Box Office HD.
From today, BT and EE customers who subscribe to TNT Sports are able to access the Premium plan on discovery+ via mobiles, tablets and connected devices including smart TVs and games consoles**.
Additionally, access to the Premium plan will be available soon for BT TV customers via selected BT TV set top boxes**.
Coming soon, Sky TV customers who subscribe to TNT Sports will also be able to access the Premium plan on discovery+, which will enable them to enjoy TNT Sports via the discovery+ app on Sky Glass, Sky Stream and Sky Q.
Anyone with a discovery+ subscription can access the service via most smartphones, tablets, desktop browsers, and connected devices, including Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, Amazon Fire TVs, LG Smart TVs, NOW, PlayStation 4 & 5, Roku, Samsung Smart TVs and Xbox.
Pricing is available from these operators. The TV channels (TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 2, TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 4) are available in high and standard definition, plus (via Sky only) six red-button channels, TNT Sports Ultimate and TNT Sports Box Office.
*£29.99 price previously charged for the BT Sport Month Pass by the BT and WBD Joint Venture. Pricing for TNT Sports for subscribers who contract via a platform such as BT, EE, Sky or Virgin Media will be determined by the relevant provider.
**discovery+ account creation required to watch via discovery+. T&Cs apply. 18+.
***TNT Sports is not available on discovery+ in the Republic of Ireland.
Here’s what fans are saying as TNT Sports reveal new faces, new roles and returning fan favourites in the BT rebrand overnight…
@MrRedDevil27: If McManaman is still on Commentary, then I’m glad I cancelled my Subscription!! 🔇
@finlayw__: No way is Steve mcmanaman still commentating
@13mickcfc: Mcmanaman & Ferdinand 🤦🏻♂️
@emilybastow_: fuck me I’ll be watching this on mute
@OssettTerrier: Woods and McCoist are two great additions but all in all, opportunity missed.
@takingthemikel: @allymccoist on prem and champions league co comms, finally. Better than hearing him twice a season on Amazon
@Tristan_ATFC: For once it’s probably the blokes that let this line up down. All for giving women a chance if they know they’re stuff and TNT has cleaned up here…
@JWJB_CAFC: They literally had an open goal with the way Sky Sports are going and instead chosen so many boring people.
@Gaming_Parent: Ally McCoist & Laura Woods will be quality for Champions League night. Massive improvement!!
@Legendoftelfer: Basic 3.99 standard 6.99 oooh ok not too bad… Football package boom 29.99 😂😂😂😂 #ripofffootball
@Mo__LFC:
Laura Woods for UCL games and some PL games if needed
Jules Breach for EL games
Ally McCoist for co-commentating on PL and UCL games
I’m happy with these changes tbh 👏👏
@nathancarty112: Great additions but please remove Steve McManaman he’s awful
@bolly1307: Ally mccoist on champ league games for TNT and Peter drury on sky for prem games 😍
@Arsenal6784: So tnt sports keeps the annoying co commentators 🙄
@JJSuggitt95: TNT had the perfect chance to reset and refresh absolutely everything but they’ve gone with the same old shit of the previous years. So disappointing.
@HorlockSteven: Your best decision wouldve been adding crowd noise as an option over any commentary
Most of these names pic.twitter.com/oBxqEH8IHz
— Jack S. (Dan Hooker fan) (@JJSuggitt95) July 18, 2023
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