Discovery-owned international sports broadcaster Eurosport has secured exclusive rights in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway to the six handball qualifying tournaments for the 2020 summer Olympic Games.
The agreement was facilitated by the Lagardère Sports agency, the global media-rights agency of the International Handball Federation.
The three IHF women’s Olympic qualification tournaments will take place between March 20 and 22 in Spain, Hungary and Montenegro, with the three men’s events hosted in Norway, France and Germany between April 17 and 19.
Norway and Sweden will compete in the women’s events held in Podgorica, Montenegro and Lliria, Spain, respectively. The two nations’ men’s teams will contest events in Trondheim, Norway and Berlin, Germany, respectively.
Lagardère Sports acquired the worldwide IHF handball rights from 2019 to 2025 after the collapse of the federation’s deal with the MP & Silva agency. The IHF terminated its €150m ($160m) agreement MP & Silva and then entered negotiations with Lagardère Sports.
French free-to-air commercial broadcaster TF1 last week built on its handball coverage by acquiring rights to the Olympic qualifying tournament in which its national team will compete.
France will host one of three men’s Tokyo 2020 qualifying events at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris.