Laura Woods lined up for BT Sport role as bosses launch plan to rival Sky Sports

18 May 2023 , 20:41

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Laura Woods is on BT Sport's radar

BT Sport wants Laura Woods to lead their Premier League coverage from next season.

The broadcaster is set for a revamp and will become TNT Sports having been purchased by Warner Brothers Discovery. Woods, who currently hosts a show on TalkSport and has previously worked for Sky Sports, has held positive talks with the channel about the possibility of getting involved.

The offer includes presenting live matches and involvement in other programming, as per the Daily Mail. Jake Humphrey has been BT Sport's main presenter of Premier League action whilst Lynsey Hipgrave has led the Saturday lunchtime slot after joining at the start of the season.

Woods is highly regarded within the industry, winning several awards throughout her career. She led ITV's coverage of the World Cup in Qatar last year and could be set for another role. TNT Sports currently show Premier League action in South America and the change in name comes out of a desire to continue growing the brand.

Andrew Georgiou, managing director of Warner Brothers Discovery Sports Europe, has said on the change: "The TNT Sports name is already synonymous with premium live sports in a number of countries around the world and a further sign of the global scale and expertise that WBD brings to the partnership with BT."

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BT Sport is currently the rights holder of European football in the UK. They are the place to watch Champions League and Europa League football whilst they also regularly show Saturday lunchtime kick-offs in the Premier League.

Laura Woods recently fronted ITV's World Cup coverage (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

The female presenter has previously excelled in hosting other sports, notably boxing and the NFL. BT Sport is currently the place to watch sports such as rugby and MotoGP in the UK.

Woods has previously told the Guardian about her style: “You have to be in the right place at the right time but you also have to be ready for it and be confident as well. And confidence comes from practice, it really does. You are never going to wake up one day and be very, very good at something straight away.

"The one thing I learned is that a listener or a reader or a viewer can all smell any inauthenticity and I figured that out really quickly. It wasn’t that I wasn’t trying to be me; it was more that I was struggling with the confidence a bit. But eventually I kept doing it over and over again and I got much more comfortable in my own skin."

Samuel Meade