RTÉ loses exclusive Irish rights to Olympic Games as Eurosport seize European deal

RTÉ may not be in position to broadcast the Olympic Games from 2018

The International Olympic Committee today revealed it had signed a €1.3billion deal with Eurosport owners Discovery Communications for the rights to broadcast the Summer and Winter Games from 2018 to 2024 across all of Europe. RTÉ retain the rights for next year's Games in Rio de Janeiro. The Olympics remain on the Irish Government's protected list of free-to-air sporting events and the package with Discovery calls for the cable channels to make 200 hours of Summer Olympic coverage and 100 hours of each Winter Games available via free-to-air platforms, meaning RTÉ or any other Irish terrestrial broadcaster could sub-license these rights. 'Part of our approach will be to strive to work with some of the best Olympic broadcast players. We’ll open up those discussions in every market,” Discovery boss David Zaslav said. “We want to give them the opportunity to sub-licence. In some markets we will run free to air, pay TV and all devices and in others we’ll partner with others.” The deal is a huge blow to RTÉ, who are also facing a battle to hold onto rugby's Six Nations amid calls for it to be removed from the protected list of events. RTÉ released a statement saying they were disappointed by the news but that it was hopeful a solution could be found and that it was "too early to say definitively that RTÉ won’t broadcast the Olympics in 2020 and 2024". "It should be noted that rights to Rio 2016 were bought by RTÉ through a third party agency when the EBU failed in its bid for those games and Discovery Channel have said today that they will ‘sub-license a portion of the rights in many markets across Europe’." "RTÉ remains optimistic that a solution will be found."