The BBC was able to strike a deal to keep showing the Olympics partly because U.S. pay-TV group Discovery "feared a backlash if it refused to share its rights to the Games with the corporation," according to Mark Sweney of the London GUARDIAN. Discovery, the owner of Eurosport, struck a "shock" £920M deal to "take control of the rights to the Olympics" from the BBC in the U.K. as well as across Europe from '22. Discovery "later struck a sub-licensing deal with the BBC as its free-to-air broadcasting partner" in the U.K.; in turn, the corporation allowed Eurosport to start broadcasting the Winter and Summer Olympics from next year. Eurosport CEO Peter Hutton said, "Yes there was economics involved and yes you can argue about the rights here and there [being aired free by Discovery in some European markets] but I don’t think anyone at Discovery wanted to be the people that took the Olympics off the BBC. We spend a lot of time looking after our brand. We want to be seen as someone who genuinely helps the sports industry and is positive to sports fans. You don’t want to be associated with [negative] stories that make the sports viewing experience worse." Hutton said that the fact that keeping the Olympics with the BBC, which does not run ads, instead of a commercial free-to-air partner "was not made because it will mean Eurosport will be the exclusive place that companies can run ads around Olympic events for the first time" in the U.K. He said, "Genuinely it was not a big factor. I think let's see where we go with our Olympic ad sales story. If you put it on the BBC it is going to get a huge audience." Asked if Eurosport "intended to raid the BBC's presenting lineup for further big name talent to boost its Olympics coverage," Hutton said, "No. I think with something like the Olympics it is really important to talk to the BBC and say, 'Look, you do this, we’ll do that' and create complementary coverage" (GUARDIAN, 10/12).
