World Rowing makes a splash with new Eurovision Sport rights deal

Eurovision Sport, the sports arm of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), has signed a new media rights deal with World Rowing to carry all major events organised by the governing body in Europe.

The new four-year-deal, which was signed by 20 EBU members as guarantors, also includes the Middle East and North Africa, running from 2021 until 2024. Eurovision Sport’s existing contract was set to expire this year, with the EBU’s initial agreement going back to the 1980s.

The agreement covers the World Rowing Championships and European Rowing Championships series in 2021, 2022 and 2023 consecutively. Additionally, Eurovision Sport will air the World Rowing Cup in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

“We are proud to secure the rights for the World Rowing events for at least four more years,” Andreas Aristodemou, Head of Summer Sports Rights at Eurovision Sport, said. “The prolongation of this agreement, in a year severely disrupted by the ongoing pandemic, shows the strength of this partnership and our commitment to continue building the profile of rowing across our Membership.”

Eurovision Sport has allowed L’Équipe TV, a free-to-air broadcaster, to continue to show World Rowing events in France, with coverage in other countries to be “offered by a mix of additional broadcasters and the digital platforms of World Rowing and the EBU”.

President of World Rowing, Jean-Christophe Rolland, commented: “We are very pleased to have been able to renew our European broadcasting agreement with Eurovision Sport, with whom we have partnered since the mid-‘80s.

“With every renewal, the number of Europe’s public-service networks that cover rowing has increased, together with the amount of coverage we have received.”

Eurovision Sport has expanded its roster with the addition of the new World Rowing agreement, a portfolio which already includes Unipublic, European Gymnastics, the International Gymnastics Federation, the International Biathlon Union, the Romanian Ski Biathlon Federation, the Austrian Ski Federation and the Amaury Sport Organisation. 

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