Discovery’s $1.5 Billion Olympics Deal Results in Uneven Free-to-Air Coverage Across Europe

According to a source with knowledge of the BBC’s 2016 negotiations with Discovery, the corporation was under tremendous pressure during talks because Discovery threatened to hand the rights to ITV instead. For the BBC, who have broadcast the Olympics since Rome 1960, losing the games would have been disastrous.

The unintended result of the Discovery deal, therefore, has been a patchwork of uneven coverage across Europe “The fragmented sports rights landscape is not good news for fans and viewers alike,” said Paolo Pescatore, a tech, media and telco analyst at PP Foresight. For both Discovery and IOC, meanwhile, the deal may not be as fulfilling as it first seemed, either. Although Discovery are believed to have already recouped much of their €1.3 billion by selling the free-to-air rights to local broadcasters , “It is difficult to work out where the value is for Discovery/Eurosport,” said the broadcasting source.

Certainly in France, where France Télévisions has significant free-to-air rights and Canal Plus is a more popular pay-TV group with more subscribers, it is questionable whether there will be much benefit for Discovery.

The event was forced to go ahead, discovery bought the rights, no fans at the stadiums...the list goes on. I lost excitement for this time Olympics. They are not showing live games. Only highlights of previous or day before games, on time we should be watching live

It's only going to get worse for free to air rights for Olympics after 2025 when many current contracts run out including BBC, this is also same time HBO Max will launch in the UK and Discovery+ will be part of HBO Max Europe as ESPN+ is part of Disney+ bundle in the US

to be fair, the women's gymnastics was aired on the BBC, we just didn't get to see the brits because the camera was always on someone else

You know, we really should hear more about other countries’ experience broadcasting the Olympics

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