EUROSPORT AGREES NEW MULTI-YEAR DEAL TO SCREEN WORLD-CLASS BIATHLON

With Eurosport broadcasting over 130 World Cup events across all major winter sports throughout the season - equating to over 1,000 hours of coverage on TV and Eurosport Player - the announcement cements the broadcaster as the Home of Winter Sports.

The pan-European deal with the EBU includes biathlon’s blue-riband events such as all IBU Biathlon World Cups from next season until the 2021/22 season as well as the next three IBU World Championships in 2019, 2020 and 2021.  Fans can watch every event with Eurosport, including via the Eurosport Player, the all-access pass to watch anywhere, anytime online, on mobile, via tablet devices or connected TVs.

As part of the new deal with the EBU, Eurosport – which has broadcast the sport live on its channels for over 25 years - has secured exclusive rights to all key biathlon events in 27 countries and territories including the United Kingdom and Netherlands while Eurosport will be the ONLY place for fans in Italy to watch local superstar biathletes such as Dorothea Wierer and Dominik Windisch.

Eurosport CEO Peter Hutton said: “Europe is undoubtedly the epicentre of biathlon. Testament to that fact is that we regularly have up to a million people across Europe watching the sport on our channels. Over the next four years we will continue to find new ways to innovate, whether that be through programming or short-form content that complements our programming.”

Ingolfur Hannesson, Head of Sports Rights – Winter Sports, EBU Sport added: "We are really pleased to have extended our long-term partnership with Eurosport, which secures extensive coverage on various platforms across the European territory. Eurosport continues to be one of the key players in the amazing onwards and upwards development of biathlon."

The agreement also sees Eurosport secure the rights to a host of other key events on the biathlon calendar for the next four years – from the IBU European Championships to the IBU Cup and the IBU Youth and Junior World Championships to the IBU Summer Biathlon Championships.

Click here to watch Eurosport's Sports Explainer episode featuring the art of biathlon – a video that analyses the basics of the discipline as well as its unique scoring system.

In the lead-up to the until the start of the Olympic Winter Games in just over a month, Eurosport will showcase up to 100 short-form episodes - including the brilliant Sports Explainer series analysing the intricacies of biathlon - as well as telling the stories of the best athletes, past and present, through the exclusive My Olympic Confession and Ones to Watch series.

Eurosport has exclusive rights to all biathlon events in the following markets: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Hungary, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vatican

ENDS.