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Launched | 1995 (as Turner Sports) 2022 (as Warner Bros. Discovery Sports) |
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Owner | Warner Bros. Discovery |
Key people | Luis Silberwasser (Chairman, WBD Sports)[1][2] Andrew Georgiou (President, WBD Sports Europe) |
Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia |
Major broadcasting contracts | |
Sister network | Eurosport |
Original language(s) | English |
Official website | press (United States) discoverysports (Europe) |
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (also known as WBD Sports and formerly known as Turner Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS, TNT, AT&T SportsNet, and TruTV. It also operates the online digital media outlets for the NCAA, NBA, PGA Tour, and PGA of America. WBD Sports also operates the sports news website Bleacher Report, as well as NBA TV on behalf of the NBA. It also owns a minority share in the MLB Network. Internationally, another Warner Bros. Discovery Sports-branded division operates Eurosport in Europe.
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.[3] 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.[4]
In 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery was formed with the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with Discovery, Inc. Turner Sports was then renamed as Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, with the brand also being used for the division that manages Discovery's existing European and international sports assets such as Eurosport, Golf Digest, TNT Sports, and Global Cycling Network.
The division began in the 1970s as the sports division of Turner Broadcasting System's basic cable networks, with separate TBS Sports and TNT Sports brands for TBS and TNT, respectively. In 1995, a unified Turner Sports rebranding began to be used, accompanied by an intro and outro sequence featuring the voice of CNN Headline News anchor Don Harrison and music from Edd Kalehoff. In 1996, Turner Sports became a division of Time Warner after it merged with Turner Broadcasting System.
In August 2012, Turner Sports acquired the sports news website Bleacher Report for $175 million.[5]
In 2018, Turner Sports launched a subscription streaming service as a branch of Bleacher Report, known as B/R Live; it would be anchored by Turner's recently-acquired rights to the UEFA Champions League, while also featuring content from the NCAA, NBA League Pass, and others.[6]
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 the AT&T SportsNet regional sports networks into a new division known as WarnerMedia News & Sports, led by CNN president Jeff Zucker.[3]
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.[4]
^D denotes deceased.