Despite having its own well-developed digital growth strategy that includes Eurosport Player, Discovery is making its sports content available in several major markets to DAZN, the subscription live and on-demand sports streaming service. The new distribution partnership will see Eurosport 1HD and Eurosport 2HD (both live and on-demand content) made available to DAZN subscribers in Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain from August 1.
Eurosport holds exclusive pan-European rights to some of the world’s biggest sporting events including 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 is also the Home of the Olympics in Europe, with all media rights to Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022.
As part of the agreement, DAZN has exclusively sub-licensed 45 Bundesliga matches from Discovery in Germany and Austria. This includes matches on Friday night, Sunday, Monday and relegation play-off matches from the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons. DAZN’s Bundesliga coverage begins with the DFL-Supercup game between FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund on August 3.
John Gleasure, Chief Business Development Officer at DAZN Group, says: “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, Head of Commercial Development for EMEA at Discovery, says the company is delighted with a partnership that expands Eurosport distribution in four 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.”
