In the U.K., government legislation requires at least some of the Olympics to be shown live on free-to-air television. The BBC won plaudits for its coverage of London 2012 and Rio 2016, where it showed virtually every single event live on its digital and online platforms, and had an agreement with the IOC that lasted through to Tokyo 2020.
Inevitably, there have been complaints about the situation in the U.K. – something that Discovery foresaw to an extent. Indeed, former Eurosport CEO Peter Hutton admitted in 2016 that viewers saw the BBC as the natural home of the Olympics and Discovery didn’t want to be seen as the “people that took the Olympics off the BBC.”
In many countries where these sports are popular and where Eurosport has been offered on basic cable TV packages for many years, awareness is certainly high. Anecdotally, Eurosport was the default channel for many bars and restaurants in Switzerland to the point that the old on-screen logo was ‘burnt’ into many LCD displays. However, in the U.K., where soccer is the dominant sport, and where Sky and BT are market leaders, attachment is arguably lower.
at the 2020 Summer Olympics, early Friday, July 30, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. Team USA defeated Turkey 3-2. “The Olympics was not bought for Discovery+ but it is a beneficiary [of the deal],” Andrew Georgiou, president of sports at Discovery tells me. “What the Olympics will do for us is make the connection between over-the-top streaming platforms and sport and it’s certainly going to make that connection during the most important sporting event in the world.
This breadth of portfolio, Georgiou argues, means that rightsholders know they can attract both casual and hardcore audiences to maximize impact and ensure that everyone is catered for. “Our sports are quite different. We’re not really a soccer-first broadcaster. We have football in these markets. What makes sense for us in terms of innovation in terms of tennis, motorsport and winter sport.”
“What we provide is something [our competitors] don’t and we bring something very different,” he says, suggesting that Discovery+ can tell sporting tales that others cannot. For example, a crossover between Eurosport and the Food Network could see live tennis followed by a documentary on the role of strawberries and cream at Wimbledon.... [+]
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