The International Olympic Committee has said it received more than 10 bids in the auction that resulted in US media and entertainment company Discovery Communications and its pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport acquiring television and multi-platform rights in 50 European markets for four editions of the Olympic Games, from 2018 to 2024.
Discovery yesterday (Monday) acquired the exclusive rights across all platforms, including free-to-air television, subscription/pay-television, internet and mobile phone in all languages across 50 territories in Europe. Russia is excluded from the agreement, valued at €1.3bn ($1.46bn), while the deal applies to the 2022 and 2024 Games only in France and the UK.
Timo Lumme, the IOC’s managing director of television and marketing, said the “competitive” auction process attracted more than 10 bids, adding: “This is the first time we have licensed these rights to a single media company to manage and broadcast all the Games across all the platforms.”
Lumme (pictured) told the Reuters news agency the European broadcast rights from the four Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024 could bring in €1.6bn in total, about 10 per cent higher than the last period, with the Russian rights yet to be sold.
David Zaslav, chief executive of Discovery, said the company would sublicense some of the rights to national broadcasters such as the BBC or France Télévisions to maximise the reach of the Games.
UK public-service broadcaster the BBC agreed a deal with the IOC in July 2012 to cover the 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 Olympic Games. French public-service broadcaster France Télévisions signed a four-Games deal with the IOC in July 2011, for 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.
Zaslav said Discovery has also made specific country-based commitments to the IOC that a certain amount of the Games will be available on free-to-air television. “In some countries our own properties will be enough and in others we will sublicense,” Zaslav said.
“In the UK we expect to talk to the BBC and other broadcasters as to whether they are interested in taking up some of the rights,” he said, adding similar approaches could be expected with public-service broadcasters in France and Germany.