Pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport has struck a four-season extension to its rights deal for events organised by the International Biathlon Union.
The contract covers the 2018-19 to 2021-22 seasons, with Eurosport sealing the agreement with the rights-holder, the European Broadcasting Union consortium of public-service broadcasters.
The pan-European deal with the EBU includes biathlon’s blue-riband events: all World Cups from next season until the 2021-22 campaign, as well as the next three World Championships in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
As part of the new deal, Eurosport – which has broadcast the sport live on its channels for over 25 years – has secured exclusive rights to all key biathlon events in 27 countries and territories.
These include: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Hungary, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and Vatican.
The agreement covers other IBU events such as the European Championships, IBU Cup, Youth and Junior World Championships and the Summer Biathlon Championships.
Eurosport chief executive Peter Hutton said: “Europe is undoubtedly the epicentre of biathlon. Testament to that fact is that we regularly have up to a million people across Europe watching the sport on our channels. Over the next four years we will continue to find new ways to innovate, whether that be through programming or short-form content that complements our programming.”