Discovery Communications has sublicensed extensive TV rights of the Olympic Games in 2018 and 2020 to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) enabling the public broadcaster to maintain its heritage of wide coverage of the competitions across its channels and platforms with a focus on Swiss athletes.
As part of the agreement, SRG SSR acquires from Discovery exclusive free-to-air TV rights and non-exclusive radio rights for the 2018 and 2020 Olympics to provide comprehensive domestic coverage in German, French, Italian and Romansh language. Discovery’s sports channel Eurosport keeps the rights to air the Olympics on pay-TV and on its digital services. Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.
“We are proud to have the opportunity to showcase the Olympic Games and have worked hard to deliver an agreement which means viewers in Switzerland can enjoy the Olympic Games in the way that suits them best,” said Kasia Kieli, president of Discovery Networks Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. “By making the Olympic Games available on both SRG SSR and Eurosport’s range of sports services in Switzerland, we will share the extraordinary moments and every moment of the Olympic Games with more fans on more screens than ever before.”
Roger de Weck, director general of SRG SSR, added: “I am delighted that following Rio 2016 we are able to continue to offer high quality coverage of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang and 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Sport is beauty, emotion. It creates idols and unites people in all parts of a country. Sport plays a key role in the programme strategy of the Swiss public broadcasting association.”
Discovery recently concluded a comparable deal with Austrian public broadcaster ORF. In neighbouring Germany, however, the negotiations with public broadcasters ARD and ZDF are said to have stalled following a disagreement regarding the price asked by Discovery.
