More than half a year after the collapse of negotiations, German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF are in talks with Discovery Networks Deutschland again regarding sublicences for the Olympic Games.
“We are in discussions with Eurosport/Discovery,” ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky confirmed to German news agency dpa. “We stressed last year that we will try to obtain sublicences for the Olympic Games at acceptable conditions.”
At the end of November 2016, the negotiations failed due to different price expectations. Discovery subsequently announced that it will show the Olympics exclusively on Eurosport, Eurosport 2, DMAX and Eurosport Player in Germany from 2018.
“There is no signed agreement at this stage,” underlines Balkausky. “For this reason, we can’t currently comment further on this issue.”
Discovery purchased the European TV rights for the Olympic Games between 2018 and 2024 for €1.3 billion in June 2015.
