Finnish public-service broadcaster YLE has struck a deal to sublicense rights to the 2018 and 2020 Olympic Games from US media and entertainment company Discovery Communications.
The deal makes PyeongChang’s 2018 winter Olympics and the 2020 summer Games in Tokyo available to Finnish viewers on both Discovery’s TV5 channel and sports broadcaster Eurosport, along with YLE.
Under the agreement, Discovery will retain exclusive content and a primetime highlights slot, which will be broadcast on TV5 and Eurosport during the Olympic Games. The deal means that for the first time, advertisers in Finland will have access to the Olympics across free-to-air and pay-television linear channels, in addition to digital platforms.
At PyeongChang 2018, TV5 will have exclusive free-to-air broadcast rights for men’s ice hockey, the No.1 winter sport in Finland with viewer share regularly reaching 80 per cent when the national team plays. TV5 and Eurosport will also retain the rights for the top two marquee sports after athletics for the 2020 Games.
The news comes after Discovery’s agreement with the International Olympic Committee in June 2015, through which it secured exclusive multimedia rights across 50 countries and territories in Europe for the 2018-2024 Olympic Games cycle.
The YLE deal follows similar deals Discovery has struck with public-service broadcasters the BBC and NOS in the UK and the Netherlands, respectively.