Dave Schafer, Senior Vice President, Sport Operations and Planning
Dave Schafer is responsible for the planning and successful delivery of all Eurosport’s production operations, overseeing the smooth execution on all linear and digital platforms across Europe.
Earlier this year, following the success of the Company’s inaugural Olympic Games at PyeongChang 2018, where he played a pivotal role in delivering the Games across 48 markets and 21 languages, Schafer took on a broader role with Eurosport to lead all sports operations activities.
Schafer has vast experience in sports production and Olympic Games broadcasting, having played a role in Olympic operations at NBC. Beginning his Olympic career at the Sydney 2000 Games, he has worked on seven Olympic Games and won three Emmy Awards for coverage in Beijing, London and Sochi.
Prior to joining Eurosport’s Olympic Games leadership team, Dave was Senior Vice President of International Digital Media, Discovery Networks International, a division of Discovery Communications, the world’s leading media and entertainment company reaching nearly 3 billion cumulative subscribers with an average of 10 TV networks in more than 220 countries and territories.
He was responsible for overseeing Discovery Networks International’s global digital media business across its five regional operations in Northern Europe; Southern Europe; Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa; Latin America/US Hispanic; and Asia-Pacific, including OTT, TV Everywhere, network websites and syndication. Schafer directly oversaw all aspects of Discovery’s international digital real estate, from content creation and revenue generation to product and technology with teams based in more than 20 offices.
With Eurosport also joining the Discovery Communications in 2014, Schafer took responsibility for growing the Eurosport Player, the Company’s premium live and on-demand OTT service.
Prior to joining Discovery, Schafer was Vice President of Operations at Madison Square Garden where he directed production management, rights management and technical operations for Fuse music entertainment network. He executed numerous varieties of productions, ranging from reality shows to multi-camera concerts for artists including Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Schafer holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Accounting from Oakland University.