Launched | 1975 |
---|---|
Owner | Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (Warner Bros. Discovery) |
Key people | Lenny Daniels (President)[1] |
Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia |
Major broadcasting contracts | |
Original language(s) | English |
Official website | wbd |
Turner Sports (TS) is the subsidiary of the Warner Bros. Discovery Sports unit of Warner Bros. Discovery that is responsible for sports broadcasts on various different channels including TBS, TNT, AT&T SportsNet and TruTV, as well as operating the digital media outlets NCAA.com, NBA.com, PGATour.com, and PGA.com. It also operates Bleacher Report, and its streaming service, B/R Live, as well as NBA TV on behalf of the NBA. It also owns a minority share in the MLB Network.
Turner's sports coverage began in the 1970s, with separate TBS Sports and TNT Sports brands used until 1995, when the unified Turner Sports branding began usage. The rebrand was accompanied by an intro and outro sequence featuring the voice of CNN Headline News anchor Don Harrison and music from Edd Kalehoff.
In August 2012, Turner Sports bought the sports news website Bleacher Report for an estimated $200 million.[2]
In March 2018, Turner Sports announced to launch B/R Live, a subscription video streaming service, featuring live broadcasts of several sports events.[3]
Turner also owned WPCH-TV, the former WTBS, which was the longtime television home for Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves. This relationship ended after the 2013 season. WPCH-TV was itself sold to Meredith Corporation in 2017 (which operated the station under a local marketing agreement since 2011 with CBS affiliate WGCL-TV), then to Gray Television in 2021.
Following AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner in 2018, it was announced in March 2019 that the Turner Broadcasting System would be dissolved, and its assets dispersed into Warner Bros. and two new units. Turner Sports was combined with CNN and AT&T SportsNet into a new division known as WarnerMedia News & Sports, led by CNN president Jeff Zucker.[4]
In October 2020, Turner Sports announced a partnership with DraftKings to be the exclusive provider of daily fantasy and sports betting information for most Turner Sports and Bleacher Report properties, excluding the NBA due to its league-wide deal with competitor FanDuel.[5]
^D denotes deceased.