The 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro are just months away. And they’re two cable companies who’ve already made preparations for future Olympics. In fact, they don’t even know where they’re having the 2024 games yet, but we already know who has the right to them.
In Europe, Discovery Communications and Eurosport have European rights to broadcast the upcoming Olympic games in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024. This landmark deal made with the IOC [International Olympic Committee] will give Discovery, major cred in the sports coverage world. It could definitely make Eurosport the premier sports network in Europe, if it isn’t already. This deal is valued at over $1.44 billion dollars; that’s 1.3 billion Euros. But that’s just the beginning. Come Olympic time, they’ll have exclusive rights to free TV, pay-per view, and even computer/mobile Olympic events. As tremendous is this feat is, there are limits. This deal doesn’t cover Russia. Nor does it cover Great Britain and France between 2018 and 2020. That honor belongs to the BBC and France Televisions. It’s been said Eurosport is a bigger sports network than our ESPN, or any American cable network. Maybe that’s because the US population is 315 million. The European population is over twice as much, reaching twice as many more people.
That’s one of the reasons we here at Computer Geeks don’t like this idea. Two cable companies have full, exclusive Olympic rights over 54 countries and 137 million households. Think about that. If that’s not monopoly, I don’t know what is. And the IOC approves this. I’m just glad British, French and Russian media intervened, even if it’s just over a couple of years. Couldn’t they have shared with German, Dutch, Italian, and other networks instead of taking the whole pot? The Olympics cover hundreds of sports over days. Couldn’t they have split the events? I know what you’re going to say. “But in America, you don’t see NBC splitting the events.” Do you see NBC hogging up the Olympics in 54 countries?