RTE have Rio covered, but it’s a different story after that.
Next year’s Olympic Games in Brazil look likely to be the last which will be covered live by RTE for some time following a huge TV rights deal secured by Discovery Communications, owners of Eurosport.
According to the Irish Independent, a huge €1.3 billion deal secured by the US company will have a major effect on the broadcasting of the Olympic games all over Europe when it kicks in in 2018.
The Discovery deal means that they will have exclusive access to all TV and Internet coverage in over 50 European countries for the Olympic Games in 2020 and 2024 and for the Winter Olympics in 2018 and 2022.
The deal does not affect Russia, while rights to the Winter Olympics in 2018 have already been sold in Britain and France.
Discovery Communications will be obliged to provide a minimum of 200 hours of free-to-air coverage of the Olympic Games and 100 hours of free-to-air coverage of the Winter Olympics.
They do intend to sub-license a portion of the rights in many markets across Europe so whether that will mean that RTE can get back in the game in some capacity (broadcasting events of an Irish interest, for example) remains to be seen.
In a statement released today, Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said: “This is a significant agreement for Discovery and the IOC, and we are excited to have Eurosport, the pan-European home of Olympic sports, as a partner.
“This agreement ensures comprehensive coverage of the Olympic Games across Europe, including the guarantee to provide extensive free-to-air television coverage in all territories. Discovery and Eurosport have demonstrated a major commitment to the Olympic Games, to Olympic sports and to the future of the Olympic Movement.
“The revenue generated from this long-term partnership will be redistributed by the IOC across the Olympic Movement to support the development of sport around the world.
“Discovery and Eurosport have also made an exciting commitment to partner with the IOC to develop the new Olympic Channel across Europe. Above all, this agreement ensures that sports fans in Europe will be able to enjoy excellent coverage of the Olympic Games and Olympic sports, both during and outside Games time, on their platform of choice.”
RTE released a statement this afternoon stressing that it was “too early to say definitively that RTÉ won’t broadcast the Olympics in 2020 and 2024.”
“It should be noted that rights to Rio 2016 were bought by RTÉ through a third party agency when the EBU failed in its bid for those games and Discovery Channel have said today that they will ‘sub-license a portion of the rights in many markets across Europe.”
RTE have promised to make every effort to secure TV rights for the Olympic Games in 2020 and 2024 “so that Irish viewers can watch home-produced, relevant coverage of Irish athletes competing both in Tokyo in 2020 and at the 2024 Summer games – something that all countries would lose in the event of pan-European coverage”.
“RTÉ remains optimistic that a solution will be found.”
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