Inside TNT Sports’ football revolution as Laura Woods joins all-female host team
As we enter the 2023-24 season in the Premier League and European competition, TNT Sports will be a new name for British football fans to get used to.
A joint venture between Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, the brand will inherit the range of sporting events broadcast by BT Sport, from English and European football to other sports including rugby and UFC.
The changes have already got underway, and some fans will be noticing changes on social media and app logos from today, while the first Premier League game under the TNT Sports branding will be Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest on August 12.
While some members of the broadcast team have moved across, others - including Jake Humphrey and Des Kelly - have not. Mirror Football got the lowdown on some of the changes, personnel and otherwise, going into the new season.
"BT Sport has a lot of great talent, and by and large, most of the folks at BT Sport are coming across with us" says Andrew Georgiou, president and managing director of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe. "But we also had the opportunity to look at some new talent, which I think is true to the brand value that we have created for ourselves, that accessibility, that humour that fun, that irreverence and [being] relatable to the fans is something that we really look for.
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"No surprise, Laura Woods is joining our line-up. But we're also have some other new talent joining our line-up on the football side as well, like Ally McCoist, which we think is huge. We have Jules Breach, who is part of our line-up, but moving into a new role."
Reshmin Chowdhury and Lynsey Hipgrave are also remaining involved, leaving TNT with four women leading their football coverage. Breach, meanwhile, will take on Kelly's touchline responsibilities within her new role.
"Between Laura and Reshmin. Lynsey and Jules, those four women will be presenting our major football coverage," Georgiou adds. "I think that's a real message for us to be to be reflective of the community to be unified. And obviously because of a very male dominated punditry side alongside is the best way for us to be able to balance that."
Meet the Presenters
Laura Woods
A two-time winner of SJA British Sports Journalism Awards Sports Presenter of the Year, she will host TNT Sports’ exclusive coverage of the UEFA Champions League, as well as major live boxing fight nights.
Woods, 36, who previously appeared on Sky Sports and covers England internationals and major tournaments - both men's and women's - for ITV, has left her position on talkSPORT radio to join the TNT team having become one of the most popular sports presenters on television and radio in recent years.
Woods, who after university started working as a runner at Sky Sports in 2009, is an avid Arsenal fan.
Laura Woods takes over as the lead anchor for the channel (Getty Images)Reshmin Chowdhury
Chowdhury will anchor UEFA Champions League matches, building on her previous role presenting the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League on BT Sport.
Reshmin also previously led Eurosport’s coverage of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 from its award-winning Cube studio and has led the presentation of numerous UEFA and FIFA events in recent years.
Reshmin presents Luka Modric with an award at UEFA's Champions League awards in 2017 (AFP/Getty Images)Lynsey Hipgrave
Hipgrave will continue to host live coverage of the Premier League in a role she began at the start of the 2022/23 season, having taken over from Jake Humphrey.
She began her career on Manchester radio station Galaxy 102, before joining BBC Radio 5 Live initially as a travel reporter. She has since presented for ITV, BT Sport, Al Jazeera and ESPN.
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Like Woods, she also previously worked for talkSPORT and notably challenged and then cut off a caller who continually referred to her as 'love' and 'darling' during a phone-in conversation.
Lynsey Hipgrave is seen speaking on BT Sport (Wolves via Getty Images)Jules Breach
Jules Breach will take on a broader role presenting the UEFA Europa League, reporting on key matches across the Premier League and UEFA Champions League also.
She will also front a new-look show to start Saturday’s Premier League coverage on TNT Sports, having previously fronted BT Sport's Saturday afternoon SCORE show.
Breach fronted BT Sport's coverage of the Women's Ashes in 2022 and is a big Brighton fan.
Jules Breach had worked for BT Sport for several years and now takes a key role on TNT Sports (Alex Livesey/UEFA via Getty Images)Other changes and the future
TNT Sports are keen to stress that personnel changes are "a change in direction more than a reflection on the individual". Indeed, the word "reimagining" comes up a lot.
This extends to the BT Sport Score broadcast, which won't be continuing next season. The focus is now on live sports, including pre- and post-match content, but there's also a recognition that viewing habits have changed in the decade since the BT Sport brand showed its first Premier League match.
"I think the evolution of media, and the evolution of how fans follow their favourite team has probably changed the need for a programme like Score," explains Scott Young, senior vice president, content and production. "That doesn't mean we won't, over time, look at how we best lean into the fact that there's a lot of football being played around that time. But we don't need to necessarily use a linear channel to do that. Whereas TNT sports app, and discovery plus are two other places in which we can place that content."
The new brand logo will be rolled out from Tuesday
Jake Humphrey left BT Sport before the changeover (Getty Images)There's a sense that in-app content can work alongside live footage - following footage from across the Champions League on a phone or tablet while simultaneously watching a game on TV, for example.
"It has to start to evolve because the audience is evolving," Young stresses. "We have to actually keep up with how the audience wants to consume our content, being platform, who they want to listen to, and how much they want to listen to that person."
But the newness of everything means even those within the on-air talent are being encouraged to pitch ideas and are doing so willingly. "This team of people are very much involved in our production," Young adds. "They are at the office, they're around the production table. They're injecting ideas, because they've all got loads of ideas.
"And I think that's another really important part of our content plan going forward. We want our on air team to be totally invested in what we're doing, because they are relatable experts in every sport."
Fans will undoubtedly have questions about the big changeover, but those at the controls are hoping it won't be as big as it sounds. One notable change is the phasing out of the standalone BT Sport app, but efforts are being made to ensure viewers can access TNT sports in the same places they've been accessing BT Sport.
TNT Sports want to revamp football viewingThe additional content from the other brands under the umbrella will, Georgiou and Young say, allow viewers to watch more for the same amount of money. For the same price as a BT Sports subscription, Eurosport and Discovery+'s entertainment portfolio will also be part of the deal.
"We know for a fact from experience in, in other markets, and in this market, that consumers watch more than one thing," Georgiou says. "They love their sport, but it's not the only thing they want. They love watching entertainment, they love watching other kinds of sport."
Change always brings some uncertainty, and this will be no different when it comes to TNT Sport. One thing fans will know, however, is there's going to be plenty of continuity which those in charge hope will keep what made its predecessor popular to begin with.
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