Eurosport president Andrew Georgiou said Discovery+ wants to use the Olympics as a springboard
Eurosport and global sports rights & sports marketing solutions president at Discovery Andrew Georgiou has outlined how Discovery+ hopes to use sport as a major draw for subscribers.
The new platform will play host to the Olympics in several regions, and the broadcaster hopes that this can be a springboard for challenging other streaming platforms.
This is in contrast to several rivals, such as Netflix, Apple, and Disney, with sport still largely sticking to traditional broadcast.
However, Amazon Prime has made some moves into sport with the Premier League and a large tennis offering, and Disney has been linked with a move for cricket rights.
“The Olympics is one of the broadest opportunities to bring on a really large cohort of people on to Discovery Plus . . . people that will want to see and stay on with us beyond the Olympics,” the FT reports Georgiou saying.
This isn’t all, with sport likely to be a key part of the strategy for Discovery+.
Georgiou added: “Something that we’re really excited about is to go and invest in new content. Content which we wouldn’t have otherwise potentially invested in for Eurosport, which will become Discovery Plus first or exclusive.”
The Tokyo Olympics is set to go ahead this summer after being postponed due to the Covid-19 crisis. It is still hoped that fans will be able to attend the event, although this is not confirmed.