Eurosport

Eurosport announces launch of three new channels to cover the Winter Olympics at PyeongChang 2018

Edwards, who set the triple jump world record in 1995 with a distance of 18.29 metres, says “it doesn’t seem right or fair” that his astonishing feat should be erased from the record books.

Away from athletics, Edwards has been preparing for his next major career move, as he takes on hosting duties for Eurosport’s live cycling coverage, part of the broadcaster’s exclusive deal for him to be its lead presenter for flagship sports programming.

Edwards has worked as both a presenter and analyst at the past four Olympic Games. He joins the cycling presenting team after being appointed Eurosport's lead presenter for flagship sports programming.

“Cycling is a huge passion of mine, both as a fan and a committed rider whenever I get the opportunity, so I’m incredibly excited to join Eurosport’s cycling team for the first two prestigious Grand Tours of the season. It’s another exciting chapter in my journey with the Eurosport team and the first stage in Sardinia can’t come too soon,” said Edwards.

The new creative collaboration will focus on the production and co-distribution of sports related social media content.

NowThis Sports is set to take an entertaining and emotional look at the stories behind the athletes rather than focusing on the games highlights.

Eurosport will give NowThis access to its vast sport content archive and will be the initial European media partner and advertising sales team in the launch of NowThis Sports, set to launch in May.

The new deal extends the CAF Africa Cup of Nations’ long-standing relationship with Eurosport, which has televised the tournament in the UK and Ireland every year since 1994.

Eurosport will broadcast live games on Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2, and stream all matches live on the Eurosport Player.

Gabon, the 2017 hosts, will stage the opening match in Libreville on January 14 against Group A opponents Guinea-Bissau who make their first appearance in the 16-nation tournament.

For the first time, the Eurosport Player will provide online subscribers with live access to matches across 12 courts. Matches will also feature heavily on the Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 satellite channels   

Rob Curling will lead the channels' presenting duties, accompanied by British stars Greg Rusedski and Annabel Croft. Retired champions Pat Cash, Mats Wilander, and Mary Pierce will feature as pundits throughout the tournament, which begins on 29 August. 

The deal is overseen by Ofcom, and allows certain rights to a secondary broadcaster after the main entitlements of the BBC. These include live coverage of both the men's and women's singles finals as well as daily 90 minute highlight shows.

Eurosport now becomes the only broadcaster to show live coverage of all four Grand Slam tennis tournaments. The Wimbledon deal has come just after its transmission of the French Roland Garros tournament concluded earlier this month and before filming of the US Open begins in August.

As the London 2012 Olympics concluded, the overwhelming emotion for the vast army of BBC executives, consumed for years by a project on the grandest of scales, was relief at a job well done.

Barbara Slater, the Director of BBC Sport, likes to bang the drum for digital. Even so, last year she found the time to blog on the corporation’s website just six times.

Four of those six posts apologetically explained why the BBC had been forced to cede flagship rights and was likely to make further cuts in the future.

The posts unpicked why the BBC, after six decades, had to surrender Open golf and also give up on a, perhaps vainglorious, bid to roll back the years by making the Beeb the exclusive home of Formula 1.

Discovery Communications has revealed a number of appointments at Eurosport who will support the company’s Olympic Games Strategy.

In June it was announced that Discovery had been awarded the European TV and multiplatform broadcast rights to the 2018-2024 Olympic Games.

The coverage will be overseen by an Olympic Games leadership organisation team. Three of the five team members were announced this week, with Jean-Thierry Augustin leading Commercialisation, David Schafer heading up Operations and Planning and Géraldine Filiol directing Olympic Relations and Coordination.