Discovery Communications has already agreed to 12 sublicense deals with European broadcasters since acquiring the Olympics rights for the region, and additional deals are expected before the end of the year, Eurosport CEO Petter Hutton said. With less than 500 days remaining until the opening ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, time constraints could play a role in future negotiations, but Hutton is not worried about that. "We don't see a sign of it slowing down," Hutton told SBD Global. "We are very pleased with the sublicensing stuff. It’s ahead of budget and it’s ahead of time scale." He did not disclose any financial terms of the agreements. Eurosport, a division of Discovery, is using its expertise in the European broadcast market to help its U.S. parent in negotiating those deals. "It’s been genuinely a pretty strong process for us," Hutton said. "Discovery has very strong local offices ... and you add that with Eurosport's knowledge of rights and the value of sports rights, those two things are at play in every sublicense deal." Discovery secured Olympic media rights from '18-24 across 50 European
countries and territories through a €1.3B deal with the IOC in June last
year.
FINDING A BALANCE: For the majority of countries and territories included in its rights package, Discovery will try to negotiate sublicense deals with local broadcasters and only hang on to pay-TV and digital rights. However, the U.S. media corporation is expected to retain all Olympics rights in markets where it operates free-to-air TV channels such as Norway or Sweden. Over the past 14 months, Discovery reached sublicense deals with several of Europe's biggest public broadcasters, including the BBC in the U.K. and Austria's ORF. These channels have broadcast the Olympics in their respective markets for decades. Eurosport, which will provide wall-to-wall Olympics coverage on pay-TV and through its digital platforms in most markets, is therefore looking for ways to set itself apart from its sublicense partners. "Creating your own space, that’s our No. 1 target," Hutton said. "We need to stand apart from what they do, and one way we can stand apart is our credibility and our relationships in the sporting world." It is a philosophy that the channel will also apply to its other core sports rights, which Hutton identified as tennis, cycling, motorsports, football and winter sports.
