The International Olympic Committee awarded a joint bid from the European Broadcasting Union and Warner Bros. Discovery exclusive European coverage rights for the 2026–2032 Olympiads. Under the agreement, the EBU will provide free-to-air radio and television coverage via member stations reaching 49 territories.
The award covers the 2025 Olympic Winter Games in Milan–Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy; the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles; the 2030 Winter Games; the 2032 Summer Games in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; and Youth Olympic Games during the period.
“We are delighted to have reached a long-term agreement with two of the world’s leading media companies,” stated IOC President Thomas Bach. “The EBU and its Members provide unparalleled broadcast expertise and reach across Europe, and Warner Bros. Discovery, through the recent combination of Warner Media and Discovery, represents one of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies across all programming genres and platforms.”
Under the agreement, the EBU will hold free-to-air rights on television and digital platforms. Every EBU Member will broadcast more than 200 hours of coverage of the Olympic Games and at least 100 hours of the Olympic Winter Games on TV, along with a range of radio coverage, live streaming and reporting across web, apps and social media. All EBU Member radio stations will have unlimited rights to the Games.
Warner Bros. Disney will have exclusive rights to carry “every moment” of the Games on its streaming and digital platforms in 43 counties (and non-exclusive rights in six other states). It will also hold full pay-TV rights, including for its Eurosport channels.
The EBU and its member stations have partnered with the IOC since 1956, but for the 2018–2024 Olympiads, the IOC awarded Warner Bros. Discovery the European broadcasting rights. Many EBU members partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery to carry the games locally for that period, but the joint bid with the EBU ensures access for the EBU stations.
[Read more of Radio World’s coverage of the Olympics here.]
“Through its members, the EBU has the potential to reach over 1 billion viewers across Europe via linear and non-linear platforms. And that’s why I’m so pleased to welcome this partnership with the IOC and Warner Bros. Discovery, which will ensure the Games will be available to the widest possible audience across Europe,” stated Delphine Ernotte Cunci, president of the EBU and CEO of France Télévisions.
EBU Director General Noel Curran echoed Ernotte Cunci’s message, noting that, because of EBU members multiple channels and platforms “… this means that the Olympics will be experienced by more people than ever before, on TV, on radio and on digital. … And this just demonstrates the incredible power of public service media when we all pull together.
Warner Bros. Discovery and the EBU have a history of collaborating to deliver complementary coverage of major sporting events. They paired up most recently in January 2023 for the 2022/2023 BMW International Biathlon Unions World Cup season and the IBU World Championships, and have hosted a range of summer sport events, including the World Athletics Championships and cycling’s Tour de France and Vuelta a España races.
The European rights deal covers Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and the Vatican City State.
