Next summer's Olympic Games in Rio could be the last shown on RTÉ television following a new deal between the IOC and broadcasting giant Discovery.
Discovery, owner of Eurosport, has signed a €1.3b billion exclusive pan-European deal for rights to all summer and winter Olympic Games from 2018.
The new deal with directly affect RTÉ and all national broadcasters across Europe, with the exception of Russia.
RTÉ could still broadcast Olympics after 2018 with Discovery indicating they will negotiate with national broadcasters for a chance to sub-licence some of the rights.
RTÉ say they will make “every effort” to secure the rights to the 2020 and 2024 games.
While the Summer Olympics is on the list of protected events that must remain free-to-air in Ireland, Discovery has given a commitment that ‘a minimum of 200 hours’ will be broadcast on free-to-air television.
Responding to queries RTE have said on Monday afternoon that while they are “disappointed at this announcement, it is too early to say definitively that RTÉ won’t broadcast the Olympics in 2020 and 2024.
“It should be noted that rights to Rio 2016 were bought by RTÉ through a third party agency when the EBU failed in its bid for those games and that Discovery Channel have said today that they will ‘sub-license a portion of the rights in many markets across Europe’.
“Under the Broadcasting Act 2009, The Summer Olympics are listed as a Designated Major Event which must be shown free-to-air in this territory.
“RTÉ will make every effort to secure the rights for the Summer Olympic Games in 2020 and 2024 so that Irish viewers can watch home-produced, relevant coverage of Irish athletes competing both in Tokyo in 2020 and at the 2024 Summer games – something that all countries would lose in the event of pan-European coverage.
“RTÉ remains optimistic that a solution can be found and in the meantime we look forward to bringing Irish viewers comprehensive free-to-air coverage of next summer’s Olympic games in Rio.”
Timo Lumme, the managing director of the IOC's television and marketing services, hopes the deal will promote Olympic sports between Games.
“We would hope the outcome will be some sort of Olympic channel contract where people can connect 365 days a year, 24 hours a day,” he said. “This is the first time we have licensed these rights to a single media company to manage and broadcast all the games across all the platforms.”
Thomas Bach, the president of the IOC, added, "Discovery and Eurosport have demonstrated a major commitment to the Olympic Games, to Olympic sports and to the future of the Olympic Movement.
“The revenue generated from this long-term partnership will be redistributed by the IOC across the Olympic Movement to support the development of sport around the world.”
"Consistent with IOC and local market requirements, Discovery has committed to broadcast a minimum of 200 hours of the Olympic Games and 100 hours of the Olympic Winter Games on free-to-air television during the Games period," a press release stated.
“Discovery will sub-license a portion of the rights in many markets across Europe.”
The events currently listed for free-to-air broadcast are:
- The Summer Olympics
- The All-Ireland Senior Inter-County Football and Hurling Finals
- Ireland’s home and away qualifying games in the European Football Championship and the Fifa World Cup Tournament
- Ireland’s games in the European Football Championship Finals Tournament and the Fifa World Cup Tournament
- The opening games, the semi-finals and final of the European Football Championship Finals and the Fifa World Cup Finals Tournament
- Ireland's games in the Rugby World Cup Finals Tournament
- The Irish Grand National and Irish Derby
- The Nations Cup at the Dublin Horse Show.
Ireland's games in the Six Nations Rugby Football Championship are currently listed for free-to-air broadcast on a deferred basis.
