Once, Eurosport shocked the competition and all of football Germany by acquiring Bundesliga rights and broadcasting them via streaming. Now, the last remnant of the “Player” is history.
As the sports channel has now announced, following the discontinuation of the “Eurosport Player,” the paid service “Eurosport Premium” will also be discontinued. This comes just before the start of the Olympic Games.
Eurosport pulls the emergency brake
In the Bundesliga, it was nothing less than a turning point. In the rights auction of 2016, Eurosport utilized the newly established “No Single Buyer Rule,” which prohibited a complete allocation to one provider, and grabbed the Friday matches. Since then, at least two subscriptions have been needed to watch all matches of German top football. However, for the TV channel, the coup was not a success story.
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Initially, it faced fan frustration over additional costs, followed by significant technical problems at the launch. Finally, the financing plan also fell apart. In the summer of 2020, just as Corona had brought the Bundesliga to a standstill, Eurosport tossed the rights overboard and handed them over to DAZN. Not even three years later, the in-house streaming service was also history.
Successor to the Eurosport Player is being discontinued
Now the successor service is also being discontinued. Following the end of the “Eurosport Player,” it has now been officially announced that “Eurosport Premium” will also be taken off the market. In all countries, including Germany, subscriptions will end on July 22. The premium subscription allowed access to paid livestreams of sports events via the sports channel’s website.
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Soon, this offering will also transition to the streaming service of parent company Discovery. A bitter time for Eurosport, as only four days after the end of Premium, the Olympic Games in Paris – the world’s largest sporting event – will start, for which Eurosport holds the rights for what is expected to be the last time.