Warner Bros. Discovery Sports has revealed how fans across Europe will be able to enjoy “the very best that winter sports has to offer” across its network of channels and apps.
Up to 600 races and 3,500 hours of winter sports action will be broadcast over the next six months on discovery+, Eurosport and the Eurosport App. In addition to its broadcast outlets, the firm’s digital platforms including Eurosport.com, will give fans the opportunity to experience the action live and on-demand as well as enjoy deeper analysis.
For the 2022-23 winter sports season, Warner Bros. Discovery has appointed a host of experts, including Martin Schmitt, ski jumping, Olympic gold medallist; Tina Maze, alpine skiing, two-time Olympic gold medallist and Justyna Kowalczyk, cross-country skiing, two-time Olympic gold medallist.
The winter sports season kicks off with the opening round of the FIS World Cup in Soelden, Austria with a women’s and men’s giant slalom while the FIS Ski Jumping season starts on 5 November from Wisla, Poland.
February and March are set to be the biggest months on the calendar with the Alpine World Ski Championships taking place in Courchevel Meribel between 6-19 February 2023 followed by the Nordic World Ski Championships; Planica, Slovenia between 22 February and 5 March 2023.
Scott Young, SVP Content and Production at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, said: “We have a rich history of telling the stories of winter sports athletes and our heritage of broadcasting the world’s biggest events for more than three decades means we can continue to attract the biggest heroes and former stars of the slopes to help bring these stories to life and deepen engagement with our viewers.
“Building on our biggest ever winter sports season, where we engaged record audiences around every unmissable moment of the Olympic Winter Games and offered the greatest choice of live events of any broadcaster throughout the season, we are looking forward to combining our unrivalled scale, deep winter sports expertise and storytelling ability to unlock the power of skiing, ski jumping and snowboarding and every other major winter discipline for fans across Europe.”
Rights breakdown:
Winter Sports World Cup events (in Austria)
Total exclusivity in: Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Georgia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom. Partial exclusivity in: Italy, Sweden
Alpine Skiing, Cross-Country, Nordic Combined, Ski Jumping World Cup events taking place outside Austria and Switzerland as of 19 October
Pan-Euro excluding: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
Exclusivity in: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, France (ex two Alpine and Nordic Ski World Cup weekends in France), Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands (ex Four Hills), North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkey, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Uzbekistan