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Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), EBU Win Rights to Air Euro Olympics
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Warner Bros Discovery (WBD - Free Report) and The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have been awarded European broadcast and digital media rights for the four Olympic Games taking place between 2026 and 2032. The news was announced today by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which accepted the joint bid from WBD and EBU.
The new deal covers the 2026 winter games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the summer games in Los Angeles in 2028, the 2030 winter games and the Brisbane 2032 summer games as well as the Youth Olympic Games in the period.
Under the terms of the agreement, WBD will distribute the Games across its streaming and digital platforms, including Discovery+ and owned-and-operated Eurosport pay-TV channels in 43 European territories, including France, Netherlands, Spain and U.K. The company will not have exclusive rights in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Norway and Sweden.
The new deal will see EBU members deliver more than 200 hours of the summer games (and 100 hours of the winter games) of free-to-air coverage across Europe on television and digital platforms, including radio, livestreaming, web, apps and social media.
Warner Bros. Discovery and EBU have a long history of collaborating to deliver complementary coverage of major sporting events. These include the International Biathlon Union World Cup and World Championship events in addition to a host of summer sports events, such as the World Athletics Championships and cycling’s Tour de France and La Vuelta Grand Tour races.
Olympic Games European Broadcasting Rights to Boost User Growth
This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company will continue to be the only company to present every moment of the games on its streaming and digital platforms such as Discovery+. It will also hold full pay TV rights for its Eurosport channels. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
WBD, in its previous guise as Discovery, first won the rights to the Games in 2015 in a €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) deal struck through its subsidiary Eurosports for the 2018-2024 period. It broadcast or sub-licensed those rights across the continent. The financial terms of the current deal have not been disclosed by the IOC.
For the past three editions of the Games, Warner Bros. Discovery oversaw broadcast partnerships with more than 45 free-to-air partners and EBU members. Together with its own platforms, this partnership drove record audiences, as 372 million people across Europe engaged with the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, 175 million of whom did so on Warner Bros.
The number of Europeans who visited Discovery’s platforms such as Discovery+ for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 came in at 156 million, over 19 times more than the previous Winter Games edition.
Starting Feb 11, the company is increasing HBO Max’s ad-free subscription fee in the United States by $1 to $15.99 plus taxes a month. This is the first ever hike done by the streaming platform since its launch in 2020. HBO Max also launched a cheaper ad-supported plan last year but the slowdown in the advertising market didn’t let HBO benefit from it.
This makes HBO the second most expensive OTT platform after its rival, Netflix (NFLX - Free Report) , whose monthly plans are at $19.99. In November 2022, Netflix released the ad-tier subscription tier in an attempt to boost declining subscriber growth and attract ad revenues.
Disney (DIS - Free Report) owned Disney+ launched its ad-supported tier, Disney+ Basic, at $7.99/month. Alongside the launch, Disney+ increased the price of its Premium ad-free subscription to $10.99/month, up from $7.99.
Warner Bros. Discovery also made HBO Max and Discovery Plus available to Amazon’s (AMZN - Free Report) Prime Video platform, thus reversing the decision to end the distribution deal with Amazon in 2021. In third-quarter 2022, Amazon witnessed 9% growth in its subscription service sales, which stood at $8.9 billion. Thus, this deal would help the new streaming division Max cater to a larger and growing audience at Amazon and fend off competition.
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Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), EBU Win Rights to Air Euro Olympics
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD - Free Report) and The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have been awarded European broadcast and digital media rights for the four Olympic Games taking place between 2026 and 2032. The news was announced today by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which accepted the joint bid from WBD and EBU.
The new deal covers the 2026 winter games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the summer games in Los Angeles in 2028, the 2030 winter games and the Brisbane 2032 summer games as well as the Youth Olympic Games in the period.
Under the terms of the agreement, WBD will distribute the Games across its streaming and digital platforms, including Discovery+ and owned-and-operated Eurosport pay-TV channels in 43 European territories, including France, Netherlands, Spain and U.K. The company will not have exclusive rights in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Norway and Sweden.
The new deal will see EBU members deliver more than 200 hours of the summer games (and 100 hours of the winter games) of free-to-air coverage across Europe on television and digital platforms, including radio, livestreaming, web, apps and social media.
Warner Bros. Discovery and EBU have a long history of collaborating to deliver complementary coverage of major sporting events. These include the International Biathlon Union World Cup and World Championship events in addition to a host of summer sports events, such as the World Athletics Championships and cycling’s Tour de France and La Vuelta Grand Tour races.
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Price and Consensus
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Quote
Olympic Games European Broadcasting Rights to Boost User Growth
This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company will continue to be the only company to present every moment of the games on its streaming and digital platforms such as Discovery+. It will also hold full pay TV rights for its Eurosport channels. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
WBD, in its previous guise as Discovery, first won the rights to the Games in 2015 in a €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) deal struck through its subsidiary Eurosports for the 2018-2024 period. It broadcast or sub-licensed those rights across the continent. The financial terms of the current deal have not been disclosed by the IOC.
For the past three editions of the Games, Warner Bros. Discovery oversaw broadcast partnerships with more than 45 free-to-air partners and EBU members. Together with its own platforms, this partnership drove record audiences, as 372 million people across Europe engaged with the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, 175 million of whom did so on Warner Bros.
The number of Europeans who visited Discovery’s platforms such as Discovery+ for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 came in at 156 million, over 19 times more than the previous Winter Games edition.
WBD Fights Streaming Competition, Adjusts Subscription Rates
Starting Feb 11, the company is increasing HBO Max’s ad-free subscription fee in the United States by $1 to $15.99 plus taxes a month. This is the first ever hike done by the streaming platform since its launch in 2020. HBO Max also launched a cheaper ad-supported plan last year but the slowdown in the advertising market didn’t let HBO benefit from it.
This makes HBO the second most expensive OTT platform after its rival, Netflix (NFLX - Free Report) , whose monthly plans are at $19.99. In November 2022, Netflix released the ad-tier subscription tier in an attempt to boost declining subscriber growth and attract ad revenues.
Disney (DIS - Free Report) owned Disney+ launched its ad-supported tier, Disney+ Basic, at $7.99/month. Alongside the launch, Disney+ increased the price of its Premium ad-free subscription to $10.99/month, up from $7.99.
Warner Bros. Discovery also made HBO Max and Discovery Plus available to Amazon’s (AMZN - Free Report) Prime Video platform, thus reversing the decision to end the distribution deal with Amazon in 2021. In third-quarter 2022, Amazon witnessed 9% growth in its subscription service sales, which stood at $8.9 billion. Thus, this deal would help the new streaming division Max cater to a larger and growing audience at Amazon and fend off competition.