Danish public-service broadcaster DR and Discovery Networks Denmark have settled on the split of their exclusive television coverage for next year’s summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, with the former having missed out on sports such as cycling and swimming.
DR will hold rights to the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as major sports such as athletics, badminton, gymnastics and women’s football. Discovery’s package will include the likes of men’s football, road and track cycling, rowing, swimming and tennis.
Upon the announcement of Discovery’s sublicensing of PyeongChang 2018 and Tokyo 2020 rights to DR in August 2017, it was revealed that there would be a 50-50 split in the division of the exclusive rights.
At the time, a split of some of the sports was unveiled, including DR’s broadcasting of Denmark’s matches in the handball tournament, plus the semi-finals and finals. Discovery retains rights for the remaining handball matches.
DR’s package also includes boxing, canoeing, sailing, triathlon and volleyball events, among others. Discovery will broadcast surfing, which is making its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, along with basketball (including 3×3), beach volleyball, golf, field hockey and rugby sevens.
Despite the split between the broadcasters’ linear channels, Discovery can broadcast all disciplines live on Dplay and Eurosport Player, its subscription streaming services. DR will only be permitted to stream live what it televises. However, both broadcasters can stream highlights or staggered transmissions on their websites or streaming services.
DR’s Olympics coverage will be available on DR1, DR2 and DRTV, while Discovery’s Kanal 5, Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 channels will showcase the action.
The full split of sports has been announced by DR here.
Discovery has a €1.3bn ($1.45bn) rights deal in place for the Olympics rights across Europe (excluding Russia) from 2018 to 2024.
At Rio 2016, Denmark won two gold medals in the shape of women’s 50m freestyle swimmer Pernille Blume and the men’s handball team.
Tokyo 2020 will run from July 24 to August 9.