Pan-European pay-television broadcast group Sky has fired the latest shot in its battle with Discovery Communications, the parent company of international sports broadcaster Eurosport, by criticising its approach to negotiations over a carriage deal, adding that the US company is seeking close to £1bn (€1.16bn/$1.25bn) for an agreement.
The high-profile dispute began last week after Discovery threatened to pull its channels from Sky’s platforms in the UK and Germany due to a carriage dispute. Following months of negotiations, Discovery claimed that Sky is paying less than it did 10 years ago for the carriage rights, while Sky said that the price demands are “completely unrealistic.”
Discovery has said that its channels and programs could be removed from Sky after January 31 if a breakthrough is not reached. The company has also launched a campaign under the hashtag #KeepDiscovery in an effort to highlight its cause.
In a statement issued on Friday evening, Sky said: “We have worked really hard for more than a year to get a deal done for our customers with Discovery, so we are disappointed with their misleading claims and aggressive actions. We now feel it’s time to set the record straight.
“We were prepared to pay a fair price for the Discovery and Eurosport channels and invest more in those channels to make them even better for our customers. We have offered hundreds of millions of pounds to Discovery, a $12bn (€11.17bn) American business, but that wasn’t enough. They asked the Sky Group to pay close to £1bn for their portfolio of channels, many of which are in decline.”
Sky said it has never left the negotiating table, while Discovery has not sought to re-engage in talks since making its initial statement on the matter. Sky added that if a new deal is not reached, it will re-invest the money on other content.
Sky added: “Sky doesn’t boot channels off our platform. If Discovery don’t want their channels to disappear, as their public campaign suggests, they could have made arrangement to stay on Sky, including free to air with advertising funding or with their own subscription, but they’ve chosen not to do so.”
In Germany, Discovery has exclusive Olympic Games rights from 2018. Eurosport also has an exclusive package of Bundesliga football rights from the start of the 2017-18 season.
In the UK, Eurosport will also play a key role in broadcasting the Olympics from 2018, while it also has exclusive live rights to tennis grand slams the Australian, French and US Opens and covers cycling ‘grand tours’ the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.