Eurosport


Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia that operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territories, and streams on HBO Max and Discovery+. It is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery International, which is itself a division of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Linear Networks.
Originally a joint venture between the European Broadcasting Union and Sky established in 1989, it was briefly shut down in 1991 following complaints by competitor Screensport. It was subsequently acquired by TF1 Group, and later merged with Screensport. For a period, it was a joint venture between TF1, Canal+ Group, and Havas Images. TF1 Group later bought out the other owners' shares. In 2012, Discovery Communications began to take an ownership in Eurosport, eventually leading to a full buyout in 2015.
Eurosport is the main rights holder of the Olympic Games in most of Europe, as well as, with some exceptions, the tennis Grand Slam tournaments.
The network of channels is available in 54 countries, in 21 different languages, providing viewers with European and international sporting events. Eurosport had 157 million subscribers in 2019, while the Eurosport 2 channel had an audience of 87 million viewers. For the most part, there is no on-screen presenter, only unseen commentators, allowing the same video feed to be used in multiple markets with different language audio.

History

Prior to the creation of Eurosport, the European Broadcasting Union had acquired substantial amounts of sports rights, yet its members were only able to broadcast a fraction of them. This provided the impetus for setting up the Eurosport Consortium, made up of several EBU members, to establish an outlet where these rights could be exploited. Sky Television was chosen as a commercial partner to the EBU project, and the channel launched at 6pm on 5 February 1989. It largely replaced the original Sky Channel on European cable systems after Sky Channel refocused to serve only the United Kingdom and Ireland although for a period of time, some of Sky Channel's former pan-European programming was broadcast in the hours before Eurosport's startup, under the brand Sky Europe.

1991 closure, takeover by TF1

Eurosport was closed down in May 1991 after rival Screensport channel filed a complaint to the European Commission over the corporate structure. The channel was saved later that month when the TF1 Group stepped in to replace BSkyB as joint owners. It was able to restart its broadcast after 10 days. Broadcasting hours were restricted to 1pm to 11pm, later 8am until midnight before settling at 7.30am and 1am. Its overnight hours were occupied by shopping channel The Quantum Channel.
On 1 March 1993, the cable and satellite channel Screensport merged with Eurosport. As a result, Eurosport International was co-owned by the TF1 Group,, Canal+ Group and ESPN Inc, with Générale d'Images as a fourth shareholder of the French operations. Five days later, Screensport's transponder space was taken over by RTL II. In May 2000, ESPN sold its shares of Eurosport to TF1 and Canal+. In January 2001, TF1 took full ownership of Eurosport.

Eurosport Player & rebrand

In May 2007, Yahoo! Europe and Eurosport formed a co-branded website which Eurosport used as its web portal, including an online TV guide, in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Germany.
In 2008, Eurosport launched an online subscription service, Eurosport Player, that allows internet users to watch both Eurosport and Eurosport 2 live, plus additional coverage not available via broadcast. During the 2009 Australian Open, the internet player offered coverage from five courts.
On 5 April 2011, Eurosport rebranded its channel. The rebrand incorporated six new on-air idents along with a new logo and presentation style both on-air and off-air. The new on-air identity has been designed by Paris-based design company Les Télécréateurs. All localised Eurosport channels and the Eurosport website embraced the new identity.

Analogue closedown

Having been one of the first channels to broadcast on the Astra 1 group of satellites, Eurosport was the last satellite channel in Europe to broadcast in an analogue format. On 30 April 2012, shortly after 03:00 CET, the rest of the remaining analogue channels at 19.2 East ceased transmission. Eurosport's analogue channel finally ceased transmission on 1 May 2012 at 01:30 CET, marking the end of an era in European satellite broadcasting.

Stake and acquisition by Discovery Communications

On 21 December 2012, Discovery Communications purchased a 20 per cent minority interest share in Eurosport from TF1 Group for €170m. Discovery became the majority shareholder in the Eurosport venture with TF1 in January 2014, taking a 51% share of the company. On 22 July 2015 Discovery agreed to acquire TF1's remaining stake in the venture.
On 13 November 2015, Eurosport introduced its new brand identity and changed the name of its main channel to Eurosport 1.
In 2016, Eurosport expanded its deal with The All England Club to show all the Wimbledon matches live in 19 countries, up from three under a previous deal. It was a 3-year deal that included exclusive TV and digital rights. This expanded their tennis portfolio to show all four Grand Slams. Eurosport signed a new deal in 2019 to broadcast Wimbledon exclusively in 11 countries., Eurosport broadcasts the Australian Open, French Open, US Open, and Wimbledon.
In February 2017, Discovery launched the channel in India, branded as DSport which was later renamed to Eurosport in 2020.
On 5 January 2021, Discovery began to phase out Eurosport Player in favour of its new streaming service Discovery+.

Warner Bros. Discovery, folding of UK operations into TNT Sports

On 11 May 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery—a company formed after the merger of Discovery with WarnerMedia—announced an agreement to contribute Eurosport's United Kingdom operations into a joint venture with BT Group. WBD would serve as managing partner, with Eurosport's UK operations to be merged with the BT Sport networks. As part of the agreement, WBD also negotiated a deal for BT Group to distribute Discovery+ to its television and BT Sport subscribers.
WBD would rebrand BT Sport as TNT Sports, deriving its name from its American cable network. In January 2025, it was announced that Eurosport would close in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 28 February 2025, in favour of carrying Eurosport content via TNT Sports channels and platforms. The remaining international channels will continue to operate under the Eurosport brand.

Channels

Eurosport 1

This is the main channel of Eurosport. A high-definition simulcast version of Eurosport launched on 25 May 2008. The first event covered in HD was the 2008 French Open at Roland Garros. On 13 November 2015, it changed its name to Eurosport 1 HD.

Eurosport 1 feeds

In Europe, Eurosport 1 is generally available in basic cable and satellite television packages. Since 1999, Eurosport 1 provides various opt-out services providing more relevant sporting content specific to language, advertising and commentary needs. Eurosport offers a stand-alone channel which provides a standardised version of the channel. Alongside this, there are also local Eurosport channels in France, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Poland, Nordic region, Benelux region, and Asia Pacific. These channels offer greater sporting content with local sporting events, while also utilising the existing pan-European feed. The German version of Eurosport is the only one available free-to-air on European digital satellite television.
Eurosport 1 is currently broadcast in 25 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek, Turkish, Cantonese, Croatian and Ukrainian.
In Asia-Pacific territories, Eurosport offers a specific channel to the region. Eurosport launched on 15 November 2009. The service is available in Australia through Foxtel, Optus and TransACT. On 3 November 2014, a HD simulcast launched on Foxtel.

Eurosport 2

A supplementary channel featuring more live sports events, programming and news updates. Eurosport 2 launched on 10 January 2005 and is currently available in 35 countries, broadcasting in 22 different languages.
Eurosport 2 describes itself as "the new generation sports channel", dedicated to team sports, alternative sports, discovery and entertainment including basketball, Twenty20 Cricket, Bundesliga, National Lacrosse League, Arena Football League, surfing, Volleyball Champions League, Australian Rules Football matches from the Australian Football League, Bandy World Championships and more. Eurosport 2 was branded as Eurosport DK in Denmark. On 15 February 2016, this channel was replaced by Eurosport 2. Eurosport 2 HD, a high-definition version of the channel, is also available.
Eurosport 2 HD Xtra is a German pay-TV channel launched in 2017. Eurosport bought Germany-only rights for Bundesliga, Supermoto and other broadcasting rights. Eurosport 2 has no German-only signal and Eurosport 1 is free-to-air, so the new channel was needed.

Eurosport India

Eurosport is an Indian pay television sports channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery India for the Indian subcontinent. It was launched as DSport in February 2017 with a partnership between Discovery India and Lex Sportel. In January 2020, Lex Sportel parted ways with Discovery, creating their own channel 1Sports. During its initial days the channel aired Brazilian, Chinese and Portuguese football leagues along with Major League Soccer and live racing from the UK and Irish tracks. In golf, the channel aired British Open, US Open, PGA Championship and LPGA. Additionally, It had also acquired rugby and cycling properties for the channel.
In January 2020, Lex Sportel parted ways with Discovery, taking their event rights from this channel and created their own channel 1Sports. On 17 March 2020, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting permitted Discovery to finally rename the channel Eurosport.
The channel revealed its new brand identity, highlighting its mission to ‘Unlock the Power of Sport’. Alongside the visual identity, it also launched a soundtrack, that is a thumping heartbeat.
Other sports it broadcasts: