Your guide to TNT Sports packages
Dan Howdle
TNT Sports has been around for nearly two years now and came about when BT Sport – set up as competitor to Sky Sports – was sold to Warner Bros, of which TNT is a division. Although there have been many small changes to the service since the sale and rebrand, the DNA of BT Sport is still very much recognisable, with the channels and sporting events offered on the service remaining very similar. The list of sports you can watch is long, not least of which a substantial slice of Premier League football. Here we'll take a look channels, sports, benefits, packages and the various ways you can subscribe and watch in order to help you choose the best package for you.
In this guide
Key features and benefits
TNT Sports is a subscription service offering five channels in total: TNT Sports 1 to 4, and TNT Sports Ultimate, which shows selected sports and events in 4K ultra-high definition. Beyond that, there are numerous benefits and features, which can vary slightly depending on how you choose to subscribe. Let's take a look.
- Extensive live sports coverage – Including, but not limited to 52 Premier League matches per season, English Premiership Rugby, other global events like UFC, WWE, boxing, MotoGP, NBA and more recently exclusive pay-TV rights to the Paris Olympic games
- TNT Sports Ultimate – Selected events are shown on TNT Sports Ultimate in 4K UHD and with Dolby Atmos sound
- Myriad ways to subscribe and watch – As well as taking out TNT Sports as an add-on to subscription TV services from Sky TV, Virgin TV, EE TV and TalkTalk TV, you can also watch with a Discovery+ Premium subscription on your smart TV or streaming device, or you can add it as a subscription to Amazon Prime Video
- Timeline markers and multi-match viewing – On Discovery+, you can jump to key moments with Timeline Markers, access replays, and switch between live events seamlessly, especially useful during UEFA games and other multi-game nights. The Discovery+ app will also send you goal alerts once set up. You can subscribe to the app directly, or through some broadband providers such as BT or Virgin Media
What sports can I watch?
Not everyone is going to be happy about TNT Sports having a fairly large quantity of Premier League matches. After all it does mean that simply subscribing to Sky Sports won't give you the whole enchilada. But there is far more the TNT Sports than just football.
Football
If football is your main interest, TNT Sports offers a lot – though not to the same degree as Sky Sports. With 52 Premier League matches each season, there are key Saturday and mid-week games shown live, along with full coverage of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League.
TNT Sports also makes it easy to stay on top of the action with features like goal alerts and replays through the Discovery+ app – however, this is not going to be how most of us subscribe. For those that subscribe via their broadband and TV provider, this feature isn't available. However, you will get all of the football content.
Rugby
For rugby fans, TNT Sports offers an extremely good lineup, featuring exclusive coverage of Premiership Rugby, where you can catch every crucial game throughout the season. You'll also get all the matches from the Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup. On TNT Sports Ultimate you can watch key matches in 4K, allowing you to enjoy the action in crisp 4K detail.
Boxing
Boxing fans will find plenty to enjoy on TNT Sports, with an impressive lineup of live fights throughout the year, showing both major title bouts and undercard matchups. Key fights are also available in 4K on TNT Sports Ultimate, so you can catch every punch and every movement in stunning detail. However, you shouldn't expect to watch fight-of-the-decade-type events like the recent bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. Those will always be pay-per-view.
The Olympic Games
Yes, we've just had them, so this is now less relevant than it might have been talking about it earlier in the year. But, the Olympics comes around every four years, and you can expect TNT Sports to have its own coverage, vastly expanding the events you can watch on British terrestrial channels like BBC and ITV. With TNT Sports Ultimate, you were even able to watch selected Olympic events in 4K.
Other sports
But TNT Sports goes well beyond football, rugby, boxing, or the Olympics. For motorsport enthusiasts, there's live MotoGP coverage, showing a;; the season’s biggest races. Basketball fans can follow the NBA with key games available live, while tennis lovers get comprehensive coverage of major tournaments, including Roland-Garros and other ATP and WTA events. Cycling is also well represented, including iconic races like the Tour de France. TNT Sports offers extensive coverage of UFC and WWE events, featuring everything from major pay-per-view matchups to weekly bouts.
Cheapest ways to get TNT Sports
There are numerous ways to get TNT Sports. You can add it onto various broadband and TV bundles, or you can subscribe direct via Discovery+ or Discovery+ Premium. Broadly, it's quite a complex situation, since subscribing directly is actually the most expensive way to do it, with various levels of discount available thanks to existing relationships between providers and TNT Sports. Since TNT Sports used to be BT Sport, you may be unsurprised to learn the cheapest way to get it is currently via BT.
Here are the top three cheapest ways to get it at the time of writing, starting with BT Broadband.
Cheapest: BT Broadband (via EE TV)
For £20 per month, you can add TNT Sports to your BT package. Note that BT TV has been rebranded as EE TV so any BT broadband and TV bundle includes EE TV. Within that, you can add TNT Sports, which includes the main four channels (TNT Sports 1 to 4) available to watch live via the channel guide. TNT Sports Ultimate is provided via the Discovery+ Premium app, access to which is included in the subscription.
Runner up: Virgin Media Broadband (with Flex)
Virgin Media has its own streaming box offering completely separate from its Virgin TV service. If you subscribe to Virgin Media Broadband you can add 'Flex' (formerly known as Virgin Media Stream) for an additional £5 per month. That gets you a basic set-top streaming box. From there you can add TNT Sports for £18 per month. But since you need Flex first that relegate this to second place, since the total becomes £23 per month.
Most expensive
As a footnote, it's worth mentioning that the most expensive way to subscribe to TNT Sports is directly through the Discovery+ Premium app, at £30.99. The reason it's so expensive is it delivers access to all Discovery and Eurosport content in addition to just TNT Sports. Regardless, if you want to watch TNT Sports and don't want to sign up to a new broadband and TV bundle, this may still be a good option, not least because there are many ways to subscribe direct, including through the Amazon Prime Video app.
TV and broadband packages
So far we've covered some of the best ways to watch TNT Sports, including the cheapest ways, even if those ways do involve quite the upheaval in terms of potentially switching your broadband provider. We won't go into the nitty-gritty of how exactly you get TNT Sports from each provider, but here is an exhaustive list of the ways you can watch when subscribing to TV and broadband.
Streaming only options
Beyond that, you can subscribe to TNT Sports via the Discovery+ app, which is also offered via a variety of other popular streaming services as well as directly. Thi tends to be the more expensive option but won't hold you to a lengthy broadband and TV contract.
Discovery+ Premium
Whether you intend to subscribe via another streaming service you're already signed up to, like Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV+, to bolt TNT Sports onto a broadband and TV bundle, or simply to subscribe direct, you'll have to deal with the Discovery+ or Discovery+ Premium app in some form. So what is it exactly?
What is Discovery+ and Discovery+ Premium?
Discovery+ is the streaming platform on which you'll find TNT Sports. It offers Discovery’s extensive channel line-up, including channels like Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, Food Network, and HGTV. The service offers both a standard plan (Discovery+) and a Premium plan (Discovery+ Premium), which includes Eurosport and TNT Sports. Discovery+ Premium is the more expensive subscription, but offers access to additional sporting events and to TNT Sports Ultimate, which screens some events in 4K.
It's a bit annoying you can't just get TNT Sports on its own, because Discovery+ Premium is pretty expensive, and many of those wishing to subscribe may not be interested in all the other content.
What our expert says...
"TNT Sports offers a fantastic range of sporting events, all in HD and many in 4K. You're far better off adding it to an existing TV package from EE, BT, or Virgin Media than you are getting it directly. Directly via the Discovery+ app it is rather expensive, and since it includes a lot of other, non-sporting content, you can find yourself paying for a lot of channels you may never want or need."
Dan Howdle, Broadband and mobile expert
