Fresh from its dispute with Sky, Discovery channel Eurosport has clinched the Olympics across six countries
Fresh from securing a last-minute deal with Sky to save its channels yesterday, Discovery today announced an Olympic tie-up with broadcasters across six European countries.
Discovery spent last week embroiled in a public spat with Sky over the future of its channels on Sky's UK and German platforms.
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Failure to agree terms with Sky would have meant an embarrassing blackout across the UK and Germany, not least after Discovery spent €1.3bn (£1.1bn) in 2015 on securing the exclusive TV rights for the Olympic Games.
The firm, a third of which is owned by US media magnate and Liberty Media chair John Malone, revealed today its Eurosport channel had agreed a partnership with major broadcasters in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Iceland, Latvia and Lithuania to show the next winter and summer Olympics.
“We are excited and proud to work with partners that value the Olympic Games as much as we do, and help us achieve our ambition to bring the Games to more people on more screens than ever before, said Eurosport chief executive Peter Hutton.
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Olympic TV rights are sold on a country by country basis. Eurosport holds the exclusive rights across most of Europe from 2018, the two exceptions being Britain and France where the rights kick in from 2022.
Regulator Ofcom has designated the Olympics as a category A event, meaning it must have live coverage made available to free-to-air channels – this means the current Olympics broadcaster, the BBC, would need to negotiate a deal with Eurosport to screen the games live from 2022.