Discovery Adds Sports To Its Programming

Professional sports has been one of the saving graces for traditional broadcasters. As companies like Netflix, Inc. NFLX pull viewers away from cable networks with original broadcasting and huge content libraries, sporting events remain as one of the last remaining cards that telecoms can play.

Pay-TV services that offer sports programing like ESPN have become hugely popular among Americans, but sports rights have become difficult to acquire in the saturated North American Market.

Discovery Communications Inc. DISCA has become well known in the US for its nature programs, but now the company is planning to enter the world of sports broadcasting by purchasing Eurosport, a European sports programming pay-TV channel group.

European Sports Broadcasting

As The Wall Street Journal noted, Eurosport is the only sporting channel group that has made its way across the entire content and boasts 205 million paying subscribers from 91 countries. The company initially covered second tier sporting events like cycling races, tennis matches and even things like snooker and darts, but since Discovery took full control in 2014, the company has made some bigger deals.

Now, Eurosport has the rights to big name events like Wimbledon and the Formula One races. Last summer, the channel group bought the exclusive European broadcast rights for the Olympics beginning in 2018.

The Next ESPN?

Discovery's acquisition of Eurosport was in hopes that Europe follows America's lead in transitioning to pay-TV services. However, the continent may be unlikely to follow the same path. For one, Europeans tend to watch less TV than their American counterparts.

Another concern for Discovery is the cost of acquiring the rights to sporting events. The rights for soccer, the most widely popular sport, are expensive and many say that Eurosport will never be able to compete with big-names like Sky in the pay-TV arena as it can't offer customers the sporting events they want.