International media and entertainment company Discovery Communications unveiled a series of deals this (Thursday) morning covering the Olympic Games and European national team football qualifiers, as well as new strategic partnerships in Spain, Italy and Chile.
Discovery, the parent company of international sports broadcaster Eurosport, agreed a sublicensing deal with RTÉ Sport, giving the Irish public-service broadcaster exclusive free-to- air television and multi-platform broadcast rights for the 2018 winter Olympics in PyeongChang and the 2020 summer Games in Tokyo. The RTÉ package includes digital rights to the content it broadcasts on its linear channel.
RTÉ will show live coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies and daily highlights on the RTÉ 2 channel, as well as via digital simulcast and catch-up services.
Discovery also sealed a sublicensing deal with public-service broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) for the same two editions of the Olympics. Under the deal, coverage of the Games will be available on HRT channels as well as Eurosport. The deal includes digital rights to the content HRT broadcasts on its linear television channel.
In addition, Discovery has been awarded exclusive television and multi-platform rights in Denmark for European qualifiers ahead of the Uefa Euro 2020 and Fifa 2022 World Cup national football team tournaments. The rights are being sold by the CAA Eleven agency on behalf of Uefa, the sport’s European governing body.
In other news, Discovery announced the acquisition of a 27.5 per-cent stake this morning in Bethia Communications, the parent company of Chilean broadcaster Mega, marking the media company’s first strategic investment in a free-to-air channel in Latin America.
Discovery also confirmed a deal with telecommunications company Vodafone, under which the Vodafone TV service will carry all of the media company’s free-to-air channels in Italy from later this summer. Separately, Discovery has secured a content agreement with Spanish media group Kiss TV to create a new free-to-air channel called Dkiss, aimed at female viewers.