Two major sport broadcasting channels in BT Sport and Eurosport have struck a deal to merge in a £540 million deal.

This was after their parent companies in BT Group and Warner Bros Discovery agreed to form a new sports joint venture.

The telecoms giant confirmed the deal as it also reported that trading is “on the right track” despite a dip in revenues for the past year.

In February, BT said it was in exclusive negotiations with the US media giant after completing a lengthy review of its BT Sport operation.

It confirmed it will now form a 50-50 joint venture which will bring together BT Sport and Eurosport.

Cumberland & Westmorland Gazette: BT confirmed the venture will be split 50-50 (BT/PA)BT confirmed the venture will be split 50-50 (BT/PA)

BT said the two brands will initially stay separate but will ultimately be brought “together under a single brand in the future”.

What will the merger mean for sports coverage?

This eventual merger of the two brands will see the rights for coverage for football, basketball, Formula 1, motorsport and more to all come under one banner.

Chief executive Philip Jansen said: “BT Group has again delivered a strong operational performance thanks to the efforts of our colleagues across the business.

“We have finalised the sports joint venture with Warner Bros Discovery to improve our content offering to customers, aligning our business with a new global content powerhouse.

“Separately, we have strengthened our strategic partnership and key customer relationship with Sky, having now extended our reciprocal channel supply deal into the next decade and agreed a MoU (memorandum of understanding) to extend our co-provisioning agreement.”