Olympics: German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF will not broadcast the Olympics from 2018 to 2024

ARD and ZDF will not broadcast the Olympic Games between 2018 and 2024, due to failing to reach an agreement with the rightsholder Discovery Communications, announced the two German public broadcasters on 28/11/2016.

ARD and ZDF made an offer for the Winter Games in 2018 in Pyeongchang (South Korea) and the Summer Games in 2020 in Tokyo (Japan) amounting to €100m. The US broadcaster Discovery Communications, which acquired the exclusive Olympic broadcasting rights in Europe for €1.3bn over the 2018-2024 period on 29/06/2015, wanted around €150m, according to multiple German media sources on 28/11/2016.

Discovery will exclusively broadcast events on its Eurosport channels in Germany: the highlights of the Olympics and performances of German athletes will be broadcast free of charge on Eurosport 1, the remaining events will be broadcast on the pay-TV channel Eurosport 2. The full Olympic Games will be available on its OTT platform Eurosport Player.

"We must admit that Discovery's requests are greater than what we can do," said Ulrich Wilhelm, director of sports acquisitions for ARD on…