German Network Wins European Games Rights

(ATR) Germannetwork Sport1 has agreed to broadcast 17 days of 2015 European Games coverage, the biggest network to sign on for the inaugural event.

It's part of the 1,500 hours of live sport Sport1 plans to air in 2015. The network is attempting to use sport to reboot itself after years of seedy programming.

"After we showed ice hockey at the Winter Games in Sochi for the first time, the broadcast of the European Games is the logical step for us," Sport1 managing director and chief editor Olaf Schröder said at Sportel in Monaco..

Around the Rings understands that Sport1 has paid a six figure sum for Baku 2015 rights, but an industry expert says that more than $50,000 would be too much so close to the event. Most major networks are hesitant to broadcast Baku 2015 because no one knows how the Games will develop.

"When we talk with Baku 2015 about a possible broadcast, there are still many open questions: which athletes will come, what is the timetable, and which sports are on the program," Stefan Kürten, Director of Sport at the European Broadcasting Union, told ATR.

"The public broadcasters need more time to plan such broadcasts, as opposed to a sports channel, and the sports on the program of the European Games would not make it into a major broadcast."

Germany, Turkey, Romania, Belgium, and Hungary are the only countries where contracts are signed contracts to broadcast the 2015 European Games.

Written and reported in Monaco by Heinz Peter Kreuzer.

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