DAZN, Discovery partner on major distribution deal for Eurosport

Sports streamer DAZN has partnered with Discovery on a wide-ranging distribution pact that will see two Eurosport channels made available to DAZN subscribers in Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Eurosport 1 HD and Eurosport 2 HD will be made available in the four markets under the deal, which is the latest expansion play for the four-year-old London-headquartered SVOD.

The deal comes despite Eurosport’s own OTT service, Eurosport Player, being available widely across Europe, meaning DAZN likely paid a premium for the rights.

Discovery’s Eurosport holds exclusive pan-European rights to Grand Slam tennis championships; cycling’s Grand Tours; all FIS World Cup and World Championship winter sport competitions and premium motorsport series’ including Formula E, WTCR and 24 Hours of Le Mans. Eurosport also hosts Olympics coverage in Europe, with all media rights to Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024 across more than 50 markets.

Meanwhile, DAZN has exclusively sublicenced 45 Bundesliga matches from Discovery in Germany and Austria, including matches on Friday night, Sunday, Monday and relegation play-off matches from the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons.

Eurosport content becomes available on DAZN from 1 August.

John Gleasure, chief business development officer at DAZN Group, said: “This is an exciting agreement that brings Eurosport’s incredible sports content to our subscribers, and delivers 45 Bundesliga matches to the DAZN service in Germany and Austria under a two-season exclusive sublicensing agreement.

“This deal underlines our commitment to providing the biggest and best sports action to fans in an accessible and affordable way, while rewarding rights holders for integrating their content on our market leading platform. We look forward to developing our partnership with Discovery.”

James Gibbons, in his role as head of commercial development for EMEA at Discovery, said: “We are delighted to enter this partnership that expands the distribution of Eurosport’s channels in four European markets. We always look for new partners that help get our brands and content to more fans. In parallel, we will continue to develop and market our all-access multi-sport OTT service – Eurosport Player – for fans who want a deeper experience.”

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)