German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF have said that they were not given the opportunity to increase their bid for the rights to four editions of the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024.
The rights to the Games in Germany and across Europe were awarded to US media and entertainment company Discovery Communications and its pan-European broadcaster Eurosport for €1.3bn ($1.45bn). Discovery said that it would negotiate sublicensing deals with free-to-air broadcasters.
According to the DPA news agency, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said that ARD and ZDF were given the opportunity to increase their bid through the European Broadcasting Union consortium of free-to-air broadcasters.
However, ARD and ZDF responded by expressing “great surprise” at Bach’s comments.
“ARD/ZDF took part in the bid separately, and not through the EBU, and submitted their own offer exclusively for the German market via their sports rights agency SportA,” the broadcasters said. “Furthermore, at no point after the submission of the offer did the IOC contact representatives of ARD, ZDF, or SportA.”
Bach said the EBU was informed of ongoing negotiations on June 23, and that an EBU representative was to share the information with ARD and ZDF. The following day, the EBU said no increased offer could be expected, DPA reported.
“We subsequently signed the deal with Discovery on June 29,” Bach said, before adding that there was “an identification and commitment to the Olympic Games and Agenda 2020” in Discovery's offer, which was also superior financially to ARD's and ZDF's.
“They were given the opportunity to improve it again. They didn't do it,” Bach said.