BBC could sub-lease Olympics after losing rights

The BBC faces the prospect of losing the rights to screen the Olympics after a pan-European deal was agreed between the International Olympics Committee and US broadcasting giant Discovery, owner of the Eurosport satellite and cable channels.

Under the terms of the agreement, which The Guardian says is worth £920m, Discovery has acquired the broadcast rights for both the winter and summer games for most of Europe, beginning in 2018.

The UK and France will remain outside the deal until 2022. Both countries already have agreements in place covering the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and the 2020 summer games in Tokyo, with the BBC retaining the UK rights to both events.

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According to the Daily Telegraph, Discovery has committed to offering free-to-air coverage and Eurosport chief executive Peter Hutton told the paper it was its "desired intention" to sub-lease this to a third party. He added the broadcaster would now begin a "relatively urgent discussion" and hinted the BBC would be a preferred option.

David Sillito, the BBC's media correspondent, notes that while the Olympics is on a government 'A-List' of sporting events which must be available to viewers who do not pay for television services, this guarantees just 200 hours of coverage of the summer games and 100 hours of the winter games. The BBC screened 2,500 hours of the London 2012 Olympics and 650 of the Sochi winter games last year.

The BBC has lost a number of major sporting events in recent years, having being outbid by pay-TV broadcasters with deeper pockets. Four months ago it lost golf's Open Championship to Sky Sports, having already given up half of the Masters and the Formula One championship.

Elsewhere the contracts for Wimbledon and rugby's Six Nations tournament are due for renegotiation soon, with the Daily Mail reporting that the BBC could lose exclusive rights over the latter from 2017 after Sky and BT were "encouraged" to submit bids.