German state broadcasters ARD and ZDF struck a deal with Discovery Communications for the right to show the Olympic Games from '18-24 "after months of tough talks," according to Maria Sheahan of REUTERS. ARD did not say on Friday how much the broadcasters were paying to sub-license the rights, but said that the deal "takes into account the financial abilities of the public broadcasters." U.S.-based Discovery won the European broadcast rights for the Olympics from '18-24 for €1.3B in '15, "beating national public broadcasters" such as the BBC and France Télévisions. ARD said on Friday that the broadcasters "would not be able to show all events" at the PyeongChang Winter Games live "due to the short lead time," adding that it would offer only highlights of figure skating, short track speed skating and snowboarding (REUTERS, 8/11). BROADBAND TV NEWS' Jörn Krieger reported Eurosport will "transmit the competitions in parallel on free-to-air TV and on its subscription OTT service Eurosport Player." No details were given on the financial conditions of the agreement with Discovery (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 8/11).
