TNT Sports have officially been named as the home of the NBA – stealing coverage from major rivals Sky Sports.
As well as showing at least nine games during each week of the regular season, TNT Sports will also broadcast the league’s major events, which include select games from the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament, the NBA Playoffs, the Finals, NBA All-Star and the NBA Draft.
With TNT showing live coverage of the Champions League, Premier League and all of Tyson Fury’s fights, it makes fans wonder what the future holds for Sky Sports.
While Sky Sports traditionally show 128 Premier League games every season, it is fair to say that the broadcasting company doesn’t really have that much else to offer its loyal customers.
Mail Sport breaks down how Sky Sports have lost their pull over the years as TNT Sports continues to grow.
TNT Sports have been confirmed as the new home of the NBA in the United Kingdom
It only adds to the company’s wide range of coverage which includes the Champions League
The decline of Sky Sports
Launched over 33 years ago, Sky Sports has been the home of live sporting entertainment ever since. However, many will argue that they have lost their touch recently.
The broadcaster made big strides the following year, showing live coverage of the Premier League – which they bought in 1992 for £304 million. The first overseas ICC Cricket World Cup from Australia and New Zealand was also shown live on Sky Sports.
In 1994, Sky Sports acquired the rights to boxing fights promoted by Barry Hearn.
Three years later, the first uninterrupted live Ryder Cup is screened by Sky Sports. Frank Bruno v Mike Tyson is offered as the country’s first nationwide domestic boxing pay-per-view a year later.
Europe’s first 24 hours sports tv new service, Sky Sports News, launched in 1998 – proving to be a major gamechanger, offering round-the-clock coverage of the latest sporting news.
On the first day of the 1998-99 season, the first edition of Soccer Saturday was broadcasted. The afternoon-long football scores service replaced Sports Saturday.
2003 was a huge year for the broadcaster, with Sky Sports showing the first edition of darts’ UK Open – which they continued to show the event until 2013. They also showed games from the UEFA Champions League for the first time, as well as becoming the new broadcaster of rugby union’s European clubs tournament Heineken Cup.
You could argue 2015 was the year that Sky Sports started to decline majorly. After 12 seasons, their coverage of the Champions League ended – with BT Sports taking over the rights.
Sky Sports traditionally show 128 Premier League games every season, but don’t have that much else to offer its loyal fans
In 2021, fights promoted by Matchroom Sport stopped being shown on Sky Sports
A year later, BT Sport took over from Sky Sports as broadcaster of Australia’s home matches for five years. This meant that BT showed The Ashes series between England and Australia.
In 2021, after more than 25 years with Sky Sports, fights promoted by Matchroom Sport stopped being shown on Sky Sports – moving to DAZN. It proved to be another blow in their exclusive rights as Anthony Joshua was the leading man for their live coverage of boxing.
To make sure boxing continues on Sky Sports, the broadcaster announced two new boxing contracts – with Top Rank for American and international boxing and with BOXXER in the UK.
In the same year, Sky Sports replaced BT Sport as broadcaster of Germany’s Bundesliga and Supercup. They still hold rights for Germany’s top league – which now features Harry Kane as their ‘poster boy.’
In September of that year, Sky Sports replaced BT Sport as the pay-TV broadcast partner of the FA Women’s Super League. Sky confirmed that they will host 44 games per season, while BBC will show 22.
This year proved to be a difficult year for the broadcaster, axing half of their football reporting team in a brutal cost-cutting exercise which also saw the exit of veteran interviewer Geoff Shreeves.
In June, Martin Tyler stepped down from his role with Sky Sports ahead of the new Premier League season.
Back in May, Mail Sport exclusively revealed that Sky confirmed Soccer AM will be axed at the end of the season 2022-23 season after nearly 30 years on TV.
2023 proved to be a difficult year for the broadcaster, axing half of their football reporting team in a brutal cost-cutting exercise
Legendary television commentator Martin Tyler stepped down from his role with Sky Sports earlier this year
TNT Sports rise to the top
BT Sport burst onto the scene back in 2012, when it was announced that they had won the rights to 38 live Premier League matches for three seasons from the 2013–14 season, beating ESPN UK, which had held the shared rights with Sky Sports the previous season.
BT announced at the same time that it would be launching its own channel for its new football coverage.
In the same year, BT announced a £897m deal with UEFA to broadcast the Champions League and Europa League exclusively on BT Sport from the 2015–16 season for three years.
Three years later, BT Sport became the official UK broadcast partner of rugby union’s European Champions and Challenge Cup competitions.
In 2018, BT and Sky agreed a £4.4bn three-year deal to show live Premier League football matches from 2019 to 2022, but the amount fell short of the £5.1bn deal struck in 2015.
Two years later, the broadcaster made big strides in the US market by taking over as broadcaster of major wrestling promotion WWE.
Last year, UFC and BT Sport announced a new multi-year media rights deal that builds upon their existing broadcast partnership for the UK and Ireland, ensuring that BT Sport will remain the exclusive media home for UFC.
The pair joined forced for the first time in 2013 and has been the home of MMA’s biggest promotion in the UK and Ireland since.
TNT Sports officially launched in the UK and Republic of Ireland today ahead of the new season back in July
Laura Woods will be the leader of an all-female line-up which also includes Reshmin Chowdhury and Lynsey Hipgrave
2023 proved to be a major year for the company – merging with Eurosport to form TNT Sport.
The creation of a new brand follows last year’s acquisition of BT Sport by Warner Brothers Discovery, who also own Eurosport, in a deal worth up to £650million.
A holding company has been set up called Warner Brothers Discovery Sport, which is likely to feature in new channels’ branding, with BT Sport consigned to history.
Fans will be able to watch TNT Sports in many of the same ways as they watch BT Sport, the broadcaster has revealed. They will continue to present the same sports rights previously carried by BT Sport – which includes the Champions League, Premier League, UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Europa Conference League.
As well as that, WBD were awarded the rights to the 2026-2032 Olympic Games. Now, following the news that they have won exclusive rights to showing the NBA in the UK, TNT Sports continues to grow as they look to establish themselves as the major broadcaster in the country.
With the likes of the Champions League, Premier League, Tyson Fury and the UFC all being shown live on TNT Sports, it is fair to say that Sky Sports have certainly lost their star power over the years.
TNT Sports offers a wide range of entertainment which includes the UFC and Champions League
All of Tyson Fury’s fights are also been shown live and exclusively on TNT Sports
DAZN’s coverage deserves high praise
Founded in 2015, DAZN is an international over-the-top sports streaming service owned by DAZN Group, which is majority owned by Access Industries.
DAZN appears to be conquering combat sports after they announced their ground breaking deal with Anthony Joshua in 2022 – which will see the heavyweight’s fights being shown live on the platform.
It is currently the global home of boxing, which offers customers access to fighters such as Canelo Alvarez, Ryan Garcia, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Katie Taylor.
With the YouTube boxing scene appearing to takeover in recent times, DAZN group confirmed an exclusive partnership with KSI and his promotional company Misfits Boxing. The deal, in association with the Sauerland brothers, Wasserman Boxing and Proper Loud, will see all KSI fights and MF & DAZN: X Series events broadcast exclusively on DAZN for the next five years.
DAZN is the home of global boxing and offers customers access to fighters including Canelo Alvarez
One of the fastest growing organisations in the world, the Professional Fighters League (PFL), have agreed a major deal with DAZN. The pair also confirmed a joint venture to create PFL Europe.
On top of their impressive combat sports coverage, the streaming platform also has an exclusive deal with the Saudi Pro League. It has proven to be another major coup from the DAZN Group – with the league containing several stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante.
In 2021, DAZN acquired the global rights to broadcast the UEFA Women’s Champions League and has been awarded host broadcaster duties until 2025.
As part of the agreement, DAZN has also entered into a partnership with YouTube that will make the competition live and free for fans around the world for the first time. With the women’s game continuing to grow, DAZN have opted to play a major role in making games easily accessible for fans.
DAZN also have live rights to the Saudi Pro League and the Women’s Champions League
BBC flying under the radar
Since 1937, the BBC has shown live coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.
In 1954, the first showed coverage of the World Cup and continue to do so to this day.
As well as the World Cup, the broadcasting giants also show regular coverage of the European Championships and look set to host several games next year in Germany.
BBC Sport have gone under the radar with their coverage which includes Wimbledon
The broadcaster also traditionally shows coverage of the World Cup and European Championships
The FA Cup is recognised as one of the greatest domestic cup competitions in world football and is currently shown live on BBC – which they share with ITV.
As alluded to, the broadcasting channel announced that it secured rights for the WSL back in 2021 – with league games to be broadcast on BBC One and BBC Two over the next three years.
For the first time in the sport’s history, the BBC will show a minimum of 18 live games from the Women’s Super League on free-to-air network television. Previously, these have been broadcast on Red Button and BBC iPlayer.
While the BBC aren’t recognised as one of the go-to channels for sport, the fact that they have exclusive rights to the World Cup, Wimbledon and the European Champions makes them a force to be reckoned with.