Discovery Communications said Tuesday that it has struck "a long-term partnership with BAMTech, the streaming business of Major League Baseball, including the formation of joint venture BAMTech Europe," a digital technology provider dedicated to working with content owners, networks and OTT platforms to enhance their digital capabilities, reach and performance across Europe, according to Georg Szalai of THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. As part of the partnership, Eurosport Digital "will become the new entity’s first client and gain access to select European sports rights from worldwide sports properties," including current and future rights acquired by BAMTech and jointly by Eurosport and BAMTech. BAMTech Europe will be formed through a joint venture between Discovery and BAMTech, a subsidiary of MLB’s digital business, MLB Advanced Media. The new venture will represent BAMTech’s expansion in Europe and will "provide world-class digital technology services to a broad set of sports, news and entertainment clients in Europe" (THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 11/1). DEADLINE's David Lieberman reported as for the Q3 results, Discovery reported net income of $219M, down 21.5% from the period last year, on revenues of $1.56B, "virtually flat." That was "just slightly short" of the $1.57B that analysts anticipated. But earnings at 36 cents a share were "well below expectations" for 41 cents. The Int'l Networks unit "took a big hit" with the company’s preferred profit measure -- adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization -- falling 16% to $183M on a 3% decline in revenues to $720M. If you "take out the effect of weakening overseas currencies vs the U.S. dollar, then revenues would have been up 2%" (DEADLINE, 11/1).
