EUROSPORT finds new Australian Home on FETCH after FOXTEL axing

Eurosport has found a new home in Australia after signing a supply deal with pay-tv provider Fetch TV.

The new deal comes after Foxtel decided to dump the channel due to rising content cost. The axing sparked significant anger from the channels dedicated army of fans. TV Blackbox has been inundated with complaints from fans of the channel over the past two months.

Eurosport will be available on Fetch from Saturday, February 1. The channel holds broadcast rights for events including cycling, winter sports, snooker and athletics.

Eurosports 2020 lineup will include:

• Cycling: Ad-break-free live stage coverage including two Grand Tours – the Giro d’Italia in May (exclusive to Eurosport) and the Vuelta a España in August – plus all of the Spring Classics, Monuments, and many other events from the World, European and Asian tours.

• Snooker: The world’s biggest snooker tournaments including the Players Championship in February, the China Open and the season-ending World Championships in May.

• Winter Sports: The final events in the 2019/20 World Cup season in February/March, including Australian stars in Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding, plus Alpine Skiing, Ski Jumping and more.

• Athletics: Major international Athletics events throughout the year, beginning with the World Indoor Tour events in Germany in February.

Confirming the arrival of Eurosport, Scott Lorson, CEO of Fetch TV stated:

“Fetch TV is very excited about our expanding relationship with Discovery, and look forward to adding Eurosport, Discovery Turbo, and Investigation Discovery to the Fetch platform over the next two months.”

“Eurosport has been one of our most requested channel additions, and we are pleased to be able to service this passionate fan base.  Eurosport continues to invest in premium content and the future is bright with expanding rights, and compelling coverage.  Eurosport is a perfect complement to our existing premium international sports offering, and will join Optus Sport, ESPN, EDGESport, beIN SPORTS, and UFC Pay-Per-View on the Fetch platform.”

Eurosport will be available on Fetch CH156 on a free trial basis to all Fetch direct retail customers throughout the month of February.  It will then be offered as an A La Carte Special Interest channel for $8.99 per month. Fetch partner ISP launch dates will be confirmed shortly.

The addition of Eurosport to Fetch brings the partnership between Discovery and Fetch TV to eight channels.  This follows the December announcement of the renewal of Discovery Channel, TLC, HGTV, Food Network and Travel Channel on Fetch, as well as the upcoming 1 March launch of Discovery Turbo and Investigation Discovery (ID). There will also be an expansion in video-on-demand rights.

The changes come after Foxtel recently renegotiated its content supply agreement with Eurosport channel owner, Discovery. The changes will affect two further channels with Discovery Kids also closing, while a new channel Investigation Discovery will replace existing service Discovery Science.

Explaining the decision to cut the channel, a spokesperson for Foxtel told TV Blackbox;

“As part of our evaluation of programming, Foxtel has made the decision to prioritise sport codes where we see consistent viewer numbers. As a result, the Discovery Eurosport channel will not be available on Foxtel from 31 January 2020.

The Eurosport channel provides coverage of European sports including alpine sports, cycling, football and niche sports such as chess however viewing numbers for the channel have been consistently small and declining.

Foxtel is continuing to invest in providing great sports coverage and we have some exciting announcements in store for 2020.

We know however there are some sports on the Eurosport channel that have a very engaged group of fans and we acknowledge there will be some disappointment at the channel’s removal. 

For fans of popular European sports we will continue to look at what options are available.  For example, SBS on Demand will be available through Foxtel early in 2020 which includes a significant range of European cycling events.

In other areas, it may be direct relationships can be established with some codes where that makes commercial sense. We will keep fans of European sport up to date during 2020”.

Foxtel is under intense pressure to cut spending on content and manage debt issues. Eurosport content has never been available via Foxtel’s sport streaming fresh hope KAYO.
In a recent interview with Max Mason at AFR, Foxtel’s CEO Patrick Delany, indicated 2020 would see the business continue to;

“drive cost out of business and don’t spend too much capital. A big part of our cost is content.”

Delany went on to indicates streaming products such as Kayo were now delivering Foxtel far more accurate data and allowing the business to make more educated decisions regarding what sporting content was actually worth keeping. The goal moving forward would be to ensure Foxtel has;

“got the minimum amount of content to make sure we keep and get subscribers. The path has been here at Foxtel where, for example, we’ve got every game of every sport. I think, going forward, we’ve got enough data to determine, actually ‘how many games of each sport do we need to make our subscribers content and not over-egg it?”