SportA, the sports rights agency of German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF, has agreed sublicensing deals for the 2020 men’s European Handball Championship with Discovery-owned sports broadcaster Eurosport and online streaming service Sportdeutschland.TV.
The news was announced today and coincided with ARD and ZDF’s extension of their long-running media rights agreement with members of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).
The EHF Euro 2020 is being co-hosted by Austria, Norway and Sweden from January 10-26.
Sportdeutschland.TV, operated by the DOSB New Media division, will show live coverage of all games not featuring Germany, while Eurosport will broadcast up to 18 matches not including Germany on a free-to-air basis.
ARD and ZDF are showing Germany’s games after agreeing a three-tournament deal in October 2018 with the Infront agency. That contract includes the men’s EHF Euro tournaments in 2020, 2022 and 2024.
Meanwhile, 34 DOSB member national sports associations have come together to sign a new deal with SportA for coverage of their sports on the sports programmes of ARD and ZDF.
The new ‘TV 34’ contract commences on January 1, adding a further two federations to the previous deal.
The contract provides rights to national and international events contested by the 34 German associations across 17 Olympic and 17 non-Olympic sports. SportA will also hold sublicensing rights to the content.
Archery, boxing, canoeing, cycling and modern pentathlon are among the sports covered by the agreement and which were also part of the multi-sport “The Finals – Berlin 2019” broadcast by ARD and ZDF for the first time this year.