Eurosport HD - History

History

Eurosport was launched on 5 February 1989 as a joint venture between the European Broadcasting Union and Sky Television plc.

Eurosport was closed down in May 1991 after the competing Screensport channel had filed a complaint to the European Commission over the corporate structure. The channel was however saved when the TF1 Group (formed after TF1 was privatised 5 years prior to this) stepped in to replace BSkyB as joint-owners. A new Eurosport channel was able to start its broadcasts the same month. On March 1, 1993, the cable and satellite channel Screensport merged with Eurosport. Eurosport eventually came under a French ownership consortium, comprising the TF1 Group, Canal+ Group and Havas Images. Since January 2001, the network has been owned entirely by TF1.

Eurosport is currently broadcast in twenty languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Russian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek, Turkish, Cantonese.

In May 2007, Yahoo! Europe and Eurosport formed a co-branded website which Eurosport uses as its web portal, including an online TV guide, in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Germany.

In 2008, Eurosport launched an online subscription service (called the Eurosport player) that allows Internet users to watch both Eurosport and Eurosport 2 live, plus additional coverage not available via broadcast. During the 2009 Australian Open, the Internet player offered coverage from five courts.

On 21 December 2012, Discovery Communications purchased a 20% stake in Eurosport from TF1 Group for €170m. Discovery has the option to increase its stake to 51% in 2014. Should Discovery exercise its option, TF1 Group would have the ability to then exercise a put option over the remaining 49% that would see Discovery take full control.