Discovery’s Beijing Winter Olympics Coverage Marks Start Of Mega Euro Play

The Winter Olympics opening ceremony is just a few hours away and, while global sporting events of recent years have rarely thrown up so much political controversy, the games are also fascinating for what they say about Discovery’s future in Europe.

Excluding Russia, Discovery holds European rights to every moment of the two-week games throughout the continent, around 50 territories.

Many such territories including the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain will be able to watch via Discovery+, the now two-year-old streamer that is gaining traction in Europe, with more launches set for later this year and big plans for the next Summer Olympics.

Discovery-owned Eurosport Player is being subsumed by Discovery+ and non-Discovery+ territories can watch, as ever, via the Eurosport network.

The patchwork of Discovery-owned rights to the Winter Olympics demonstrates the scale and complexity of its operation. Scandinavian viewers can watch via free-to-air and various other free-to-air broadcasting partnerships have been struck around the continent, as Discovery sub-licenses these rights under its Olympics and business model.

In the UK, however, the loyalty of Discovery+ subscribers will be tested as 300 hours’ worth of coverage will be available on the free-to-air BBC, which is the host broadcaster.

Olympic moment

The Olympic moment for Discovery+ comes as its owner is both getting set to take a quantum leap in the streaming race via a merger with WarnerMedia and is to combine in the UK on a JV sports platform with BT Sport. The latter news was confirmed just 24 hours prior to the Beijing opening ceremony, which feels more than coincidental.

The WarnerMedia deal, the widely anticipated $43 billion spin-off from AT&T, is expected to gain final regulatory approval in the next couple of months. Even though AT&T shareholders will hold 71% of the stock of the new entity, it will be run by current Discovery CEO David Zaslav. On the streaming front, the deal will bring Discovery+ under the same roof as HBO Max, which WarnerMedia launched in 2020 in the U.S. and globally just last June.

As the combined company looks to continue the rollout of HBO Max, which is in 43 countries with another 15 coming online soon, it is widely expected that it will be bundled with Discovery+. HBO Max ended last year with 73.8 million global subscribers when combined with HBO, which is ahead of the company’s initial guidance. Discovery reported 20 million paid streaming subscribers as of last November, but that tally includes niche services focused on cooking and golf, among other subjects.

Unlike Disney’s bundle, the combined streaming offer of Warner Bros Discovery could be a fully blended one, many Wall Street analysts and industry observers believe. It would combine the unscripted offerings and European sports of Discovery+ with the prestige originals and vast library of HBO Max. Live programming has not yet appeared on HBO Max, though WarnerMedia says it plans to stream some National Hockey League games on the platform under a multi-year rights deal it signed in 2021. In some key territories, roadblocks remain. Legacy distribution deals with Sky will prevent HBO Max from launching in the UK, Germany and Italy until 2024.

Launching soon in the UK, however, will be the sports JV with BT Sports, which both parties have said they want to rush through by the end of this year.

The news came out of the blue yesterday morning, following several weeks of speculation that Kevin Mayer’s DAZN was seeking an $800M acquisition of BT Sports. As recently as Wednesday, UK publications were forecasting that the DAZN deal was almost there but Mayer, who became a Discovery streaming consultant in late 2021, said the deal had become “uneconomical” for DAZN.

The JV brings together coverage of the Olympics, football’s Premier League, UEFA Champions League and major events in other sports such as cycling and tennis, and will hand a well-timed boost to BT Sport’s ailing service.

It is yet more proof of Discovery’s growing foothold, one that will be felt in living rooms across Europe for the next fortnight and beyond.