Pan-European sports channel Eurosport on Monday announced it will be the exclusive home of the Olympic Games in Germany from '18-24, following the breakdown of sublicense talks with German broadcasters ARD and ZDF. Eurosport CEO Peter Hutton called the news a "business-changing decision" for the network's future in the German market. As a result of the historic development, the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games will be the first Olympics not broadcast by either of the German public broadcasters. U.S. media company Discovery, which owns Eurosport, elected to hang on to all Olympic rights in Germany after it became clear that vast financial differences made a sublicense agreement with ARD and ZDF unrealistic. "There are two elements, clearly the finance is part of it, but also our ambitions in Germany have sort of grown and grown over the last 12 months," Hutton told SBD Global. "This is a business-changing decision for Eurosport." Discovery will use its free-to-air TV channels Eurosport 1 and Dmax to deliver the next four Olympic Games to German viewers. Additional coverage will be available on pay-TV channel Eurosport 2, as well as online through OTT service Eurosport Player. Hutton did not disclose how far apart Discovery and ARD/ZDF were in terms of financials, only calling it "a very clear decision."
OPEN TO TALKS: Despite the breakdown of the negotiations, Hutton said the possibility to work with other media outlets remains on the table. "There’s always the possibility to work with other platforms," he said. "The clear decision is that the lion's share of broadcast rights will be with us and that we have to plan to cover the whole thing." Though unlikely, ARD and ZDF said in a statement that they would be willing to get back to the negotiating table should Discovery change its position. With 14 months left until the Opening Ceremony in South Korea, Hutton said, Eurosport had to make a decision now to ensure it will fulfill its promise of delivering the best ever Olympics coverage in Germany. Discovery acquired Olympic broadcast rights from '18-24 for 50 European countries in a €1.3B deal with the IOC last June. It has already signed several sublicense deals across the continent, including with the BBC in the U.K.
LIVING UP TO ITS POTENTIAL: Germany is the biggest TV market in Europe and therefore plays a key role in Discovery and Eurosport's future plans. Earlier this year, Eurosport added Bundesliga rights in its pursuit of premium content in the market. "With taking the Bundesliga rights in Germany, we are clearly in a different position now to where we were certainly two years ago, and I’d say probably one year ago," Hutton said. "We’ve always had this ambition of being seen as a German channel and not as a pan-European channel, and now we have the rights and the people to do that. Eurosport has a local face in France, the U.K. and in parts of the Nordics historically, but it has never lived up to its potential in Germany."
